Keir Starmer calls UK-India FTA deal ‘fantastic’, highlights Labour govt’s success

After the United Kingdom and Indiaagreedto a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday hailed the “fantastic” deal as he came down heavily on the Opposition Conservative Party in the Parliament.

Starmer highlighted the Labour government’s success in clinching the FTA, as the Tories failed to strike a deal while in government for eight years.

“Over the past week, we have secured a historic trade deal with India and a landmark agreement with the United States, protecting and creating British jobs, slashing tariffs and driving economic growth,” Starmer said during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons.

“The India deal is a fantastic deal, with tariffs on cars cut to 10 per cent, tariffs halved on whisky and gin, and GBP 4.8 billion coming into our economy. What does she [Badenoch] say she would do with the India deal? She wants to rip it up,” he also said.

He also pointed to Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch’s statements last week, which branded as “fake news” Indian assertions that the Double Contribution Convention (DCC) agreed to prevent temporary foreign workers duplicating social security contributions in both countries had been on the negotiations table with the previous UK government.

“She was even reduced last week to accusing the Indian government of fake news — no wonder she did so badly as a Trade Secretary. The project for the Conservatives is over. They are sliding into oblivion; they are a dead party walking,” said the UK prime minister.

TheFTA, agreed on May 6, is expectedto add an extra GBP 25.5 billion annually in the long runto the current two-waytrade of GBP 41 billion, accordingto the UK’s Department for Business andTrade (DBT).

According to the FTA deal, Scotch whisky tariffs will be cut from 150% downto half and then eventually to 40%.

The deal is now in the process of being finalised in draft form for Parliament approval before it can come into force.