Farm tax changes will not affect 'vast majority' - PM

Sir Kier Starmer was speaking to staff at the Airbus aerospace plant in Broughton, Flintshire

Changes to agriculture inheritance tax will not affect "the vast majority" of Welsh farmers, the Prime Minister has said.

Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves' announced that there would be an end to exemptions for some farms in the Budget.

However during a visit to Wales on Friday, Sir Keir Starmer said he understood the concerns of farmers and he wanted to support them.

The National Farmers Union has called the changes "disastrous", saying it would see family farmers forced to sell land to pay the tax.

From April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an effective inheritance tax rate of 20% - half the usual rate of 40%.

He said in a “typical case” there was a threshold of £3m before any agricultural inheritance tax would be paid.

The PM was visiting the Airbus aerospace plant in Broughton in Flintshire ahead of Welsh Labour’s autumn conference in Llandudno.

"The small number that would be affected, of course, then would only paid 20% and it would spread over 10 years," the PM said.

"We put £5bn in over the next two years into farming in the budget, which is the single biggest amount that any government has put into farming," he added.

The Welsh government receives a proportion of the £5bn but it is up to Welsh ministers how they spend that cash.

First Minister Eluned Morgan has previously said Welsh government calculations show a "tiny proportion" of farms in Wales could be affected by tax change but the exact number was still being worked out.