Hundreds of protesters opposing changes to inheritance tax rules for farms gathered outside the Welsh Labour conference as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer defended his government’s recent Budget measures.Farming unions have said the planned changes will have “disastrous” consequences. Starmer told the conference in Llandudno, Conwy, he would defend the Budget “all day long” for taking “tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy”.Dozens of tractors and farm vehicles were parked on the prom outside the conference at Venue Cymru.Getty ImagesLater, in the afternoon, Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Eluned Morgan announced that the Welsh NHS will receive an extra £22m to tackle waiting lists.Signs reading “Enough is enough” and “No Farmers No Food” were held up as conference attendees entered the building for the morning session.Conwy county farmer and broadcaster Gareth Wyn Jones said he and others were taking part in the protest to “air their frustrations”.He described the changes to inheritance tax rules as a “massive bombshell” that would affect “thousands” of farming families.”For us in Wales, we’ve been under a Labour government for 25 years and enough is enough,” he said.”The morale, the mental health… everything is at an all-time low.”People need to understand we want to feed them and, at this moment in time, it’s going to be a massive inflation in food.”And the poorer people in society are the ones that are going to suffer, and that’s what Labour should be protecting.”Deputy Welsh First Minister and Rural Affairs Secretary Huw Irranca-Davies met a delegation of the farmers and spoke to the farming unions.Starmer did not meet the protesters, or refer to them in his speech, stressing that he would “defend our decisions in the Budget all-day long”.He told the conference: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality, defend tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy, and I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales, finally turning the page on austerity – once and for all.”The prime minister said the time was “long overdue for Westminster politicians to level with people, honestly, about the trade-offs that Britain faces”.Politicians had to “stop insulting your intelligence with the chicanery of easy answers, when that is exactly how we got into this mess in the first place”, he said.”It’s hard, of course it is hard,” he added.Getty ImagesDairy farmer Abi Reader, deputy president of NFU Cymru, urged the Treasury to rethink its inheritance tax policy changes, saying thousands more farmers would be affected than it has suggested.”We should be very live to the fact that it is not a guarantee that we are going to be producing the same amount of food year on year with the change in climate and the geopolitical issues that we face today,” she told BBC News.Describing the current political circumstances as a “once in a generation chance for a Labour government in Westminster to work in partnership with a Labour government in Wales”, Starmer confirmed plans for a £160m investment zone in Flintshire and Wrexham would go ahead next year.In his first speech to a W …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnHundreds of protesters opposing changes to inheritance tax rules for farms gathered outside the Welsh Labour conference as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer defended his government’s recent Budget measures.Farming unions have said the planned changes will have “disastrous” consequences. Starmer told the conference in Llandudno, Conwy, he would defend the Budget “all day long” for taking “tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy”.Dozens of tractors and farm vehicles were parked on the prom outside the conference at Venue Cymru.Getty ImagesLater, in the afternoon, Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Eluned Morgan announced that the Welsh NHS will receive an extra £22m to tackle waiting lists.Signs reading “Enough is enough” and “No Farmers No Food” were held up as conference attendees entered the building for the morning session.Conwy county farmer and broadcaster Gareth Wyn Jones said he and others were taking part in the protest to “air their frustrations”.He described the changes to inheritance tax rules as a “massive bombshell” that would affect “thousands” of farming families.”For us in Wales, we’ve been under a Labour government for 25 years and enough is enough,” he said.”The morale, the mental health… everything is at an all-time low.”People need to understand we want to feed them and, at this moment in time, it’s going to be a massive inflation in food.”And the poorer people in society are the ones that are going to suffer, and that’s what Labour should be protecting.”Deputy Welsh First Minister and Rural Affairs Secretary Huw Irranca-Davies met a delegation of the farmers and spoke to the farming unions.Starmer did not meet the protesters, or refer to them in his speech, stressing that he would “defend our decisions in the Budget all-day long”.He told the conference: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality, defend tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy, and I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales, finally turning the page on austerity – once and for all.”The prime minister said the time was “long overdue for Westminster politicians to level with people, honestly, about the trade-offs that Britain faces”.Politicians had to “stop insulting your intelligence with the chicanery of easy answers, when that is exactly how we got into this mess in the first place”, he said.”It’s hard, of course it is hard,” he added.Getty ImagesDairy farmer Abi Reader, deputy president of NFU Cymru, urged the Treasury to rethink its inheritance tax policy changes, saying thousands more farmers would be affected than it has suggested.”We should be very live to the fact that it is not a guarantee that we are going to be producing the same amount of food year on year with the change in climate and the geopolitical issues that we face today,” she told BBC News.Describing the current political circumstances as a “once in a generation chance for a Labour government in Westminster to work in partnership with a Labour government in Wales”, Starmer confirmed plans for a £160m investment zone in Flintshire and Wrexham would go ahead next year.In his first speech to a W …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
