PM Says Criticism Of India Trade Deal Is "Incoherent Nonsense"
The UK finally announced a trade deal with India yesterday after three years of negotiating by successive governments (Alamy)
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Keir Starmer has described criticism of the UK's new trade deal with India as "incoherent nonsense".
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Starmer defended the "landmark" trade agreement after opposition parties attacked what had been agreed between the two countries over the social security arrangements of Indians seconded to the UK.
Under the terms of the deal, which government says will add £4.8bn a year to the UK economy by 2040, Indian workers temporarily moved to the UK will not pay National Insurance contributions for three years. British workers in India will enjoy the same benefit.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was quick to criticise the deal, accusing the government of giving a tax break to Indian workers while at the same time raising National Insurance employer contributions for British workers.
PoliticsHome reported on Tuesday night that Labour MPs in Red Wall seats had privately expressed anger over the deal, with one describing it as "brain dead".
Speaking in the House of Commons, however, the PM described the attacks as "incoherent nonsense".
"We are backing British car companies like JLR, and our India trade deal will see tariffs slashed for car sales, and that is good for British jobs, and the criticism on the double taxation is incoherent nonsense," he told MPs.
Starmer said that the deal is "a benefit to working people" and that similar agreements on social security feature "in the agreements that we have already got with 50 other countries".
"If the member for Clacton [Farage] or the Leader of the Opposition [Kemi Badenoch] is seriously suggesting that they're going to tear up agreements with 50 other countries, create a massive hole in our economy, they should get up and they should say so."
The government has sought to stress that arrangements like this are common in trade deals and are designed to prevent workers from essentially being double-taxed.
