Changes to farming inheritance tax will not affect the “vast majority” of Welsh farmers, the Prime Minister has said.

Last month Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced exemptions for some farms would end in the Budget.

But during his visit to Wales on Friday, Sir Keir Starmer said he understood farmers’ concerns and wanted to support them.

The National Farmers Union called the changes “disastrous” and said family farmers would have to sell land to pay the tax.

From April 2026, farms valued at more than £1 million will face an effective inheritance tax rate of 20%; This rate is half the normal rate of 40%.

He said in a “typical case” there was a threshold of £3 million before any agricultural inheritance tax was due.

The Prime Minister was visiting the Airbus aerospace factory at Broughton in Flintshire ahead of Welsh Labor’s autumn conference in Llandudno.

“The few who will be affected will of course pay only 20% and this will be spread over 10 years,” the Prime Minister said.

“We have allocated £5bn to farming in the budget over the next two years, the largest amount any government has allocated to farming,” he added.

The Welsh government is receiving some of the £5 billion, but it is up to Welsh ministers how they spend the money.

First Minister Eluned Morgan previously said Welsh government calculations showed a “small proportion” of farms in Wales could be affected by the tax change, but the exact number was still being determined.