Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused the leftist Labour Party government of Sir Kier Starmer of “betraying” the British working class through a trade deal with India, which critics claim will give advantages to Indian migrants in the UK over the native population.
On Tuesday, London and Delhi agreed a post-Brexit trade deal, said to be the largest yet signed. The deal will see tariffs slashed on British exports such as cars and whisky while lowering the import taxes on Indian goods such as textiles and seafood.
Downing Street claimed that the agreement would increase bilateral trade by £25.5 billion and add £4.8 billion to the UK GDP per year, or around a 0.1 per cent increase.
Prime Minister Starmer said of the deal: “The trade deal with India will raise living standards, put more money in the pockets of British working people, and deepen the unique ties between our two nations.”
However, the Labour government also made concessions on migration, such as allowing Indian chefs, musicians, and yogis access to the contractual services visa route, which had previously excluded the South Asian nation.
More concerningly for mass migration critics, the deal also contained a “double contribution convention”, which will see some migrant workers from India being exempt from paying national insurance contributions — a second income tax that the government levies on workers — for three years. The same would apply to British workers in India.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed that as a result of the deal, in conjunction with the Labour government’s recent rise to national insurance payments for companies employing British workers, it will be approximately 20 per cent cheaper for companies to employ Indian migrants than the native population.
Branding the system as another example of “two-tier Keir” in action, Mr Farage said: “This Government doesn’t give a damn about working people.
“The Labour Party have this time in a big, big way betrayed working Britain, and that’s why many people voted for us last Thursday, but for some reason the Government just doesn’t seem to understand.”
“Reform UK are the party of British workers. This deal is truly appalling and I think what you’ll see is Starmer’s ratings in the polls plummet further.”
Such criticisms were echoed by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who said that she had blocked a previous iteration of the India trade deal under the Conservative government as she was not willing “to grant concessions on visas.”
“It seems that you have caved and opened our labour market to more Indian workers who will be cheaper to hire than Brits. This is not the way to cut migration or support British workers. Haven’t you learnt anything from the last few days?!” she wrote.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, remarked: “Taxpayers will be livid that while they’re being hammered with higher taxes, Indian workers will now be granted exemptions.
“Labour has caved into foreign demands, offering a gold-plated carve-out that leaves British workers footing an ever larger tax bill, all the while the country’s finances and cultural cohesion come under further pressure from high levels of migration.
“Ministers should scrap this two-tier tax exemption and put British workers first instead of selling them out to appease foreign countries.”
Proponents of the deal have claimed that companies sending Indian workers to Britain will still have to pay for national insurance equivalent in their home country, perhaps mitigating some of the apparent advantage over UK workers gained in the agreement.
Last year, 81,000 migrants from India were granted visas to work in Britain. However, it is unclear how many of those would qualify for the national insurance exemption.
According to The Telegraph, the government acknowledged having an internal analysis on the projected number of people the scheme would apply to, but has refused to make such information available to the public.
While the British government has downplayed the potential impact, claiming that it would not meaningfully impact migration numbers, the government in Delhi hailed the deal as a “huge win” for Indian employees working in the UK and said that it would result in “greater global mobility for aspirational young Indians.”
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