Sir Keir Starmer was accused of “running out the back door like a flipping rat” to avoid scores of angry farmers outside protesting over controversial changes to death duties dubbed “the family farm tax”.
The prime minister had been giving a speech at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno where he stood by the measures in Rachel Reeves’s much criticised Budget with a record £40bn in tax rises. But he didn’t directly acknowledge the growing backlash to inheritance tax changes which mean two-thirds of farmers would be liable to pay 20 per cent inheritance tax on family farms – a figure disputed by the Treasury. Hundreds of farmers had gathered on the promenade in Llandudno and were dismayed the PM did not appear to leave via the front of the conference centre.
