LONDON: Hundreds of farmers, many in tractors, gathered in Wales on Saturday to protest against UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government`s decision to change inheritance tax rules for farms.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves announced last month that farming assets worth more than 1.0 million ($1.26 million) will be liable for 20-percent inheritance tax from next year.

Farmers have warned that family farms may have to be split up, although Starmer says that only a `smallnumber` will be affected.

Farming unions have called the planned changes `disastrous`, and around 200 farmers gathered outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno on Saturday, where Starmer was speaking inside.Starmer told delegates that he would defend the government`s budget `all day long`.

Around 40 tractors parked outside the venue. A larger protest is planned in London on Tuesday.

Demonstrators displayed signs reading `food shortage soon` and `Labour war on countryside`. Protest organisers shouted Digon yw Digon, which means `Enough in Enough` in Welsh, accused the government of not `working or listening to us`.

Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones said farmers would deliver a letter to Starmer, warning him not to `bite the hand that feeds you`.

`They`re destroying an industry that`s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically,` he told Sky News.

-AFP