PM 'fled like a rat' as angry farmers besiege conference

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".

- DAVID MADDOX

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.

Farmer and well-known YouTuber Gareth Wyn Jones said that he “ran out of the backdoor like a flipping rat”.

He branded the prime minister “disrespectful”, adding: “With so many people that have come here to air their frustrations and problems, he had an opportunity to come out and address the crowd. He should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people. He was voted in by the people and he should listen to the people.

“He didn’t even have the guts to come and just address them. He shot out of the back door with his security and gone back to his London hideout.”

A Labour source denied that he was trying to avoid the protesters, saying that the exit was chosen because that was where Sir Keir’s official car was parked.

The prime minister is not believed to have spoken to any of the protesters outside the event after proclaiming to Welsh Labour members that he was proud of his government’s achievements so far and would not back down over measures in Ms Reeves’s controversial Budget.

Sir Keir’s speech at the Welsh Labour conference was given against a backdrop of hundreds of protesting farmers enraged by the changes in inheritance tax which mean farms over £1m in value will be liable for the first time at 20 per cent, forcing families to break up or sell off farms.