Our destiny is not with Europe but India and the rest of the world
The India-UK Free Trade Agreement has finally been signed, removing 90 per cent of Indian tariffs on UK exports and UK tariffs on Indian imports such as clothes and footwear. Negotiations have been going on for several years, having begun back in the period when Liz Truss was trade secretary.
The Tories were keen to complete a deal and seemed close several times, potentially with some controversy had there been easy visas included. It will be interesting to see the details on the visas once there is time to study the full agreement.
Another contentious area was the so-called Double Contribution Convention. On the one hand this might seem to help facilitate high-income Indian workers temporarily basing themselves in the UK, by avoiding their incomes being double taxed (taxed by both the Indian and UK authorities). That might even provide some much-needed welcoming signals, following the non-dom status abolition.
However, the other component to the Convention is that there is agreement that contributions made whilst in each other's countries will create entitlements. UK negotiators were keen that that did not create a situation in which Indians could emigrate to the UK and immediately be entitled to benefits. (In other trade agreements there are entitlement provisions, but full entitlement in the UK requires a sufficiently long UK contribution record.) Suspicious reviewers, some of whom worry that this might make Indian workers cheaper to hire than British equivalents, will scrutinise the legal details closely.
A further set of issues may concern the degree of control, if any, that the agreement offers over imports from China into India passing through into the UK. This may be particularly sensitive in the context of any upcoming UK-US trade deal.
These caveats offered, this agreement is surely positive, potentially the most significant UK trade deal, so far, enabled by Brexit, perhaps even bigger than the deal with Japan, and by some metrics the largest trade deal India (historically notorious for its high import duties and scepticism about trade deals) has ever done.
It illustrates the capacity of the UK to be attractive to trade partners outside Europe and the conceptual and strategic errors of the attempted 'EU reset'. Europe is not the UK's future. The EU can be close friends and allies over matters such as Ukraine, and perhaps there are still minor tweaks we can make to our trade deal with the EU over academic research collaboration and the like.
But, ultimately, the UK has reach and interests that extend far beyond Europe. We have made trade agreements with Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the host of countries in the CPTPP. We now have an agreement with India. We may yet do a deal with the US. Britain is not a regional European player.
It is a global player and has been such for hundreds of years. We should embrace that destiny, not run from it into a European cul-de-sac comfort zone. Big prizes still await us. Let's seize them.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Israel's blitz was years in the planning: Mossad agents smuggled drones into Iran desert, army chiefs and nuclear scientists were killed and Tehran's radar and missile bases eliminated in most devastating attack on Iranian soil for nearly half a century
Months, if not years in the planning, it was the most devastating attack on Iranian soil for nearly half a century. A perfect fusion of high-grade conventional capabilities, human ingenuity and the latest advances in military technologies. Outcome: Iran 's nuclear-enrichment programme set back, dozens of air-defence systems wiped out and leading nuclear scientists and military commanders killed. Israel 's primary aim was to degrade Iran's nuclear-enrichment capabilities. But a political agenda was also emerging yesterday, as regime change in Tehran appeared a distinct possibility. At around 1am UK time about 200 Israeli military aircraft took off from bases inside the country. But by then much of the painstaking work had already been done, entirely in secret. The ground had been laid some time ago by Mossad agents and Israeli special forces who infiltrated Iran, smuggled weapons into the country and prepared drones ahead of what Israel named Operation Rising Lion. With only hours to go, the Israeli government informed the White House that the mission was going ahead, despite US and Iranian officials having arranged to hold talks on Sunday about descaling Iran's nuclear-enrichment programme. This warning allowed US diplomats and their families posted to the region to take additional security precautions. Donald Trump had previously indicated that while he was not prepared to assist Israel militarily, he would not stand in the country's way either. Israel's hand was also strengthened by the announcement, only days earlier, by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that, for the first time in two decades, Iran was refusing to work with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran's dismissive response to their pronouncement was to indicate it would establish a third nuclear-enrichment site and install more advanced centrifuges – a move which appeared to have sealed the country's fate. First reports of Israeli airstrikes emerged in northern Tehran: an explosion in the residential area of Nobonyad. Details remained scant yesterday, but some reports indicated this may have been where some of the country's leading nuclear scientists lived. Subsequently, the Iranian government confirmed the deaths of a number of academics: Fereydoun Abbasi, former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Dr Mohammed Mehdi Tehranchi, president of the Islamic Azad University of Tehran, and Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmad Zolfaghari and Amirhossein Feqhi, from Tehran's Shahid Behesti University. Meanwhile, deep in the deserts of central and western Iran, Israeli special forces troops released swarms of drones which targeted radar facilities and surface-to-air missile capabilities – the military hardware an Iranian response to Israel's attacks would rely on. Israel is expert in such clandestine operations. Even so, the methodology represented a 'hat-tip' to Ukraine, which is understood to secretly exchange 'tactics, techniques and procedures' (TTPs), in military vernacular, with Israel. The rationale for that cooperation from Israel's perspective is it supports Ukraine – though it does not publicise that support – because Iran supplies Russia with thousands of drones. With so many layers of Iran's defences destroyed, Israeli jets focused on their main target, the centrepiece of Iran's nuclear-enrichment programme, the Natanz atomic facility in Ishfahan province, 140 miles south of Tehran. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) and the International Atomic Energy Authority confirmed damage to the multi-storey enrichment hall where the nuclear centrifuges are housed. Natanz has tens of thousands of centrifuges and significantly contributes towards Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile. The IDF also targeted infrastructure at the site which, in its words, 'enables the continuous functioning and the continued advancement of the Iranian regime's project to obtain nuclear weapons'. IDF spokesman Effie Defrin said its forces had 'significantly harmed' the site, which he added was used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to 'advance their military nuclear programme'. Crucially, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was left unscathed. This ensured there was no increase in radiation levels. This was by no means the first Israeli strike on Natanz. It was the target of a major cyber attack in 2010 and a guerrilla-warfare style attack in 2020, when explosives were hidden inside one of the buildings. As many as ten strikes were reported at Tabriz airport and a nearby oil refinery in north-west Iran. A long column of black smoke was seen rising from the airport. Three people were reported dead in the city itself. Israel also struck dozens of radar installations in western Iran, probably by means of special forces troops approaching the sites on foot, assembling miniature kamikaze drones and setting them off towards these military facilities. Operating at such short range, these drones evaded Iran's limited surveillance capabilities. Explosions were also reported at the Nojeh airbase in Hamedan, western Iran. A number of senior Iranian military officers were also said to have been killed when they convened for what they thought was a secret meeting to plan pre-emptive strikes on Israel. The venue was chosen for its protection, a bunker deep underground. But, according to reports, the bunker was not deep enough, as an Israeli warhead penetrated the basement. A damaged high-rise building that was hit by Israeli air strikes, north of Tehran, Iran, 13 June 2025 HOSSEIN SALAMI Salami was commander-in-chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Salami, who was born in 1960, in 2019. MOHAMMAD BAGHERI A former IRGC commander, Major General Bagheri was chief of staff of Iran's armed forces from 2016. Born in 1960, he joined the Guards during the Iran-Iraq war that raged in the 1980s. AMIR ALI HAJIZADEH Hajizadeh was head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace force. Israel named him as the central figure in directing aerial attacks against it. In 2020, he accepted responsibility for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet, which occurred shortly after Iran launched missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq to retaliate for a U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. GHOLAM ALI RASHID Major General Rashid was head of the IRGC's Khatem-al-Anbiya HQ. He previously served as deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces. FEREYDOUN ABBASI Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, was head of Iran's atomic energy organization from 2011 to 2013. A hardliner, he was a member of parliament from 2020 to 2024. MOHAMMAD MEHDI TEHRANCHI Nuclear scientist was head of Tehran's Islamic Azad University. OTHER SCIENTISTS Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi and Motalibizadeh. Iran later confirmed the deaths of Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the IRGC, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) force, aerial commander Davoud Shaykhian and Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian Army's Chief of Staff. As precautionary measures, Israel closed its airspace and its diplomatic missions overseas. It also suspended gas production at sites in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile its attacks across Iran lasted for at least five hours – possibly much longer as reports last night suggested that, having secured aerial supremacy, Israeli jets were returning to some of the targets to inflict further damage. By way of response, Iran is said to have launched at least 100 drones towards Israel. Its officials also declared the attacks 'declaration of war'. Iranian drones were found on the ground in Syria after being intercepted by the Israelis. The IDF also released footage of the country's navy shooting down an Iranian drone using Barak-8 surface-to-air missile. That no Iranian ordnance seemingly struck any Israeli targets may have convinced its state news agency Fars to deny it had launched any drones at all, claiming Iran's revenge will 'take place in the near future'. Iranian media also reported at least 78 deaths and 329 casualties from the Israeli attacks, including women and children. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel should 'anticipate a severe punishment', adding the country's armed forces would defend Iran's sovereignty. To the surprise of Western observers, Iran's most loyal proxy group in the region, Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and armed and financed by Iran, said it would not respond. Iran halted all domestic and international flights from its airspace. US Secretary of State Mark Rubio suggested Israel's actions were 'unilateral'. While the US did not take part in the military action it was fully aware of Israel's intention. Sir Keir Starmer, sidelined by Israel after condemnation of its continuing campaign in Gaza, called for de-escalation. A No 10 spokesman said: 'Our priority is to prevent further escalation in the Middle East, that's in no one's interest... we're working closely with all our allies to press for that diplomatic solution'. Russia, which recently signed a military cooperation pact with Iran, condemned Israel's 'unprovoked attack on a sovereign state'. While China expressed 'concern'. So did Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was last night due to speak to Vladimir Putin. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres asked both sides to 'show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a deeper conflict'. Mr Trump advised Iran to 'make a deal' while it still has the opportunity. He described Israel's attack as 'excellent'. Israel has claimed it was 'just the beginning'. The UN Security Council was meeting yesterday to discuss the continuing crisis. Mr Netanyahu was expected to speak to Sir Keir. The Prime Minister has also discussed the Middle East security crisis with German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
ANDREW PIERCE: Is Angela Rayner's hard-Left boyfriend plotting to put her in No 10 as revenge for his sacking by Starmer's ruthless right-hand man?
On the eve of the Government's difficult Spending Review, Angela Rayner was in surprisingly high spirits. Drinks were flowing as the Deputy Prime Minister held court, acting as the DJ playing loud 'house music' while her guests danced the night away. Rayner's office has refused to confirm whether a party took place in her resplendent grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House, once the home of Sir Winston Churchill, the night before the Housing Secretary received one of the biggest financial packages of the Spending Review. Rayner had to battle to the bitter end against Chancellor Rachel Reeves, but the outcome fell in her favour and is a sign of her growing influence. In recent weeks, there have been reports of Rayner limbering up to replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader, and she has solid backing from members of the soft-Left, as well as the unions. Her victory in the Reeves negotiations is a clear sign that Downing Street is trying to keep her on side. Little wonder, then, that she indulged in raucous celebrations hours before the Chancellor addressed the Commons, reviving memories of when she was photographed belting out songs behind the DJ's desk in an Ibiza nightclub last summer. When Rayner, 45, took her place on the benches for the Spending Review, many thought she looked somewhat jaded. The same was said of Blackpool South MP Chris Webb, who was at the party and is one of her closest friends. A source told me: 'They were celebrating the fact that Ange had won her deal on the Spending Review. She is feeling on top of the world. The settlement showed that Ange is a serious player. Tarry, 42, has never got over being sacked as a shadow minister in July 2022 for giving a TV interview while on a picket line during a rail strike 'It may look insensitive but it was a private party for a small group of friends and supporters. These party guests will run an Angela Rayner leadership campaign if and when the time comes.' Rayner's ebullience was in stark contrast to the downbeat demeanour of the dwindling band of Reeves supporters. Her stock has fallen to rock bottom among Labour MPs and members. And Rayner's soiree will only heighten suspicions in the Downing Street bunker ahead of a potential crunch Commons vote on reforms to disability benefits. As many as 200 Labour MPs are said to be deeply unhappy about Reeves's plans to make £5 billion of cuts. In public, Rayner says she has no interest in becoming Labour leader. In private, however, I can disclose that many of the party-goers on Tuesday night are working hard to bolster her support among MPs and party members. Some MPs have dubbed the less-than-covert Rayner campaign Operation Revenge because it is being masterminded by her boyfriend Sam Tarry, 42, who has never got over being sacked as a shadow minister in July 2022 for giving a TV interview while on a picket line during a rail strike. Later that year, he was deselected as the MP for Ilford South. Tarry, who was part of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership team, blames his downfall on Starmer's all-powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who wants to purge the party of Left-wingers. Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say, and Tarry is pushing for Rayner to be the first elected woman leader of the Labour Party. In the run-up to the election, Rayner ruled out a tilt at the top job because she knew Labour was destined to win big and assumed that Starmer would be a fixture in No 10 for years. Since he became PM, however, support for Labour has collapsed faster than that of any newly elected governing party in the past 40 years. Starmer's personal rating is a woeful minus 46 per cent. And Rayner is popular where it counts – with party members. In a poll by independent party news website LabourList, she came second to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who is not a leadership contender after his disastrous election defeat in 2015. What's more, many Labour MPs believe they must elect a woman for the first time in the party's 125-year history. Even Rayner's many detractors, who scorn her intellectual ability, concede there is no serious alternative contender. Rachel Reeves and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have crashed and burned in the eyes of voters. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, another favourite of party members, does not have a Commons seat. And Health Secretary Wes Streeting's majority was cut to 550 by an independent Muslim candidate standing on a pro-Gaza platform. Many suspect he will lose next time. The man who helped Rayner avoid a similar fate is her close friend Wajid Khan, a former mayor of Burnley. He was instrumental in ensuring no independent Muslim candidate stood against her in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency in Greater Manchester, which she won with a 6,700 majority over Reform. To the surprise of many, Khan – who was elevated to the Lords by Starmer in 2020 – became Rayner's deputy minister in the housing department. 'Khan was repaid with a ministerial job and he is now repaying her in turn by working discreetly on her behalf,' says a supporter. 'He will be a hugely important link to the Muslim vote which Labour is losing under Starmer.' All of which helps explains why Rayner has come round to the idea that, if Starmer goes, she should run. It explains, too, last month's leak of a memo from Rayner to the Chancellor outlining her alternative money-raising measures, arguing for higher taxes on wealthier people and cutting benefits for migrants. Whoever leaked it – and Rayner's team say it wasn't them – had one purpose: to cast her in a positive light with the MPs and party members who will choose the next leader. Some MPs say the leak fired the starting gun on a long race to succeed Starmer, which is why it caused such anger in Downing Street. Days later, Rayner had to fight her corner behind the scenes after reports that Starmer would strip her of the housing element of her brief. Flame-haired Rayner is unashamedly combative and, according to a source, 'there was a lot of shouting'. A darling of the trade unionists, she has the personality to build bridges across the party. Rayner was the special guest at Tony Blair's Christmas drinks last year. She is also close to Gordon Brown and her boisterous birthday karaoke parties are well attended by the Right and Left in the party. A Rayner associate says: 'If you're a working-class woman like Ange, who is always being written off by the men in the Downing Street bunker, what better way to prove them wrong than by seizing the top job?' Rayner famously left school aged 16, pregnant and without any qualifications. Her political hero was former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott. 'Some say she's Prescott in a skirt,' says a supporter. 'Like Prescott, she speaks the language of ordinary voters. She understands them the way the metropolitan elite around Starmer don't. If there's a leadership election tomorrow, she wins hands down.' Downing Street is aware of the manoeuvring. It may be why, in the past few weeks, Rayner has lost her personal photographer, Simon Walker. 'No 10 thought she was getting too big for her boots, so they grounded her photographer and have now taken the post away altogether,' a source told me. A source close to Starmer says: 'You can't blame them for reining her in. Keir leads a stable government, a disciplined party, and knows what he wants. Ange would be woefully out of her depth as PM. She's not up to it and MPs know it.' But Rayner is indifferent to the barbs. She thinks she's on a roll and, judging by the mood of her party guests, they think the same.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Three union leaders included in King's Birthday Honours
Three trade union leaders have been included in the King's Birthday Honours for services to areas including education and green jobs. Dave Ward, long-serving general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is made a CBE for services to trade unions, and Dr Patrick Roach, who recently retired as general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union is made a CBE for services to education. Sue Ferns, deputy general secretary of the civil service union Prospect, is made an OBE for services to green jobs and workplace transition. Mr Ward has been general secretary of the CWU for a decade, leading the union through the privatisation of Royal Mail and recent sale of the postal giant to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. He started work as a messenger boy at Tooting delivery office in south London before becoming a union rep, holding several positions before succeeding Billy Hayes as general secretary in 2015. He is married with four children, supports Chelsea and is a keen blues guitarist. He told the PA news agency: 'The New Deal for Workers campaign was founded and led by the CWU. 'At a time when society has never been more unequal the trade union movement pushing Labour to turn this campaign into a new Employment Rights Bill could not have been more important. 'This honour is recognition of our union's work in this area and for the way we stand up for postal, telecom, financial services and tech workers across the UK. 'I joined the GPO as a telegram boy in 1976 and it is a privilege to now be the general secretary of a union that campaigns for our members in and out of the workplace. 'We now need employers and the Government to go even further in rebalancing workplaces and society. We will continue to lead this.' Dr Roach stepped down as NASUWT general secretary in April after five years. The son of Jamaican immigrant parents, he grew up in Walsall, West Midlands, in the 1970s, and has described how he faced racism at school on a daily basis. He is married with two children. He was a teacher of politics and sociology in further education and was a researcher and lecturer in education, social policy and equalities in higher education. He later joined NASUWT and headed the union's education and equalities work before becoming assistant general secretary and then deputy general secretary. He has served in a number of voluntary roles as a school governor and in supporting the provision of supplementary education for African Caribbean children. Dr Roach became head of the union in 2020 at the start of the first national lockdown, leading union members in uncharted territory as schools and colleges, teachers and headteachers adapted to one of the most challenging post-war periods in education. As head of the TUC's anti-racism taskforce, Dr Roach was instrumental in leading Britain's trade union movement in challenging racism and injustice at work. He told the PA news agency: 'I am humbled and incredibly proud to be granted this honour. 'It has been my privilege to have been afforded the opportunity to devote my career to education and in the service of NASUWT members, teachers and headteachers, whose commitment, work and dedication every day continues to inspire, shape lives and make a world of difference.' Sue Ferns, who has also been a member of the TUC General Council since 2005, grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and was the first member of her family to go to university, studying industrial relations at Salford University. After graduating in 1982, she started working for the TUC's economics department. She joined Prospect in 1993, becoming head of research in 2002, director of communications and research in 2013, and senior deputy general secretary in 2018. She has campaigned on issues including the gender pensions gap, workers' rights in the science, engineering and energy sectors, and clean energy. She has taken part in several government taskforces and working groups, particularly on clean energy jobs and workforce skills. She told the PA news agency: 'I am privileged to have spent my career in the trade union movement, determined to make a positive difference to the lives of working people. 'I'd like to thank the countless colleagues, trade union representatives and members within our movement, whose commitment to improving the lives of others has been an inspiration throughout my career.'
