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The National
09-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Keir Starmer's India trade deal slammed as gift to Nigel Farage
'It couldn't be more to Reform UK's benefit than if Nigel Farage had written it himself,' the journalist said on BBC Politics Live on Wednesday. The Labour Government announced on Tuesday that the UK and India have finally struck a trade deal after years of negotiations following Brexit. Tariffs will be slashed on a number of British exports including whisky and Scottish salmon. But opposition politicians have criticised a provision in the deal exempting some temporary Indian workers from National Insurance payments, claiming this would undercut British staff – which Jonathan Reynolds described as 'completely false'. READ MORE: Everything you need to know about John Swinney's Programme for Government Under the terms of the agreement, staff working for an Indian company who transferred to the UK for less than three years would pay into the Indian social security system rather than paying into both British and Indian systems as they do now. UK workers temporarily in India would remain subject to national insurance, but be exempt from Indian social security levies. Asked about her view on the deal, Sarkar hit out at Keir Starmer for being 'inconsistent' in terms of messaging. (Image: PA) 'It wasn't that long ago he was saying that globalisation was over. Globalisation was dead. And I think that this speaks to a lack of joined up thinking and consistency that is at the heart of his political project. I don't think that this is a man with a strong sense of vision or a particularly attuned ear when it comes to domestic politics. She added: 'I couldn't think of worse timing for a policy announcement like this, or something which is going to be more to the benefit of Nigel Farage and Reform.' BBC host Jo Coburn then asked Sarkar about the 'substance' of the deal. 'I mean, it is still a free trade deal with a country that is known to be protectionist, that will open up and probably go towards boosting growth. The core mission of the Government,' Coburn said. But Sarkar said the growth globalisation has brought has been 'very uneven'. 'It's benefited very rich people and different regions at different paces. And so, if you're someone in the UK, who works in the remnants of our industrial, manual sectors, it might not actually benefit you,' she said. Sarkar added: 'I think when you couple that with this question of National Insurance contributions, it couldn't be more to Reform's benefit than if Nigel Farage had written it himself.'
The Independent
26-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Labour minister apologies for comparing disability benefit cuts to children's pocket money
A Labour minister has apologised for comparing disability benefit cuts to children's pocket money. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, attempted to defend Labour's welfare cuts, announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves in the spring statement on Wednesday (26 March). He told BBC Politics Live: 'My understanding is what the impact assessment doesn't account for is the benefit that you get from our additional money into support for training, skills or work. 'Take, for example, if I said to my kids, 'I'm going to cut your pocket money by £10 per week, but you have to go and get a Saturday job'. 'The impact assessment on that basis would say that my kids were down £10, irrespective of how much money they get from their Saturday job.' Appearing on ITV's Peston show on Wednesday evening, Mr Jones admitted his earlier comment was 'tactless'.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ash Sarkar blasts UK for following US 'like a little lapdog'
THE UK's defence policy has been left 'twisting in the wind' because the country has followed the US along 'like a little lapdog', journalist Ash Sarkar has said. Sarkar appeared on a panel on BBC Politics Live where guests were discussing whether America is 'destroying' the world order as we know it. Following an extraordinary clash in the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, the US President has suspended military aid to Ukraine and has paused intelligence sharing with the nation. When Sarkar was asked if she felt the US is destroying the world order, she said she found it appalling the UK had 'paved the way' for the weakening of international law with its actions in Iraq in 2003. READ MORE: She also criticised how the UK had shaped its defence policy around the US, questioning why the country has two aircraft carriers which have been repeatedly mocked as being obsolete in the age of drones and hypersonic missiles. Sarkar said: 'Donald Trump's world view can be boiled down to this – he thinks there are three global apex predators: there's America, there's China and there's Russia. "We've spent decades following America along like a little lapdog hoping to get the crumbs from them," Novara Media's Ash Sarkar tells #PoliticsLivehttps:// — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 6, 2025 'When he says America First he doesn't mean America plus Ukraine, he doesn't mean America plus Britain, he means America first, America's interests first. 'For me the thing which, I think, is appalling about this situation is one, we have paved the way in many respects in weakening international law, so that's why you have Russia waging a war of aggression. 'I mean, we kind of did that first with Iraq. We led the way when it came to unlawful invasions on flimsy pretexts. 'The second thing is we have spent decades following America along like a little lapdog hoping to get the crumbs from them and shaping our defence policy around them.' (Image: Win McNamee, via REUTERS) Presenter Jo Coburn then pointed out the UK Government likely sees the US "as the most powerful country in the world". But Sarkar argued following the US had left the UK 'twisting in the wind' when it comes to defence. 'It's left us in a bad position,' she said. READ MORE: 'Why do we have two aircraft carriers? They're not useful for a land war in Europe. 'Russia doesn't have a single functioning aircraft carrier because they know what they're looking to do. We've got two aircraft carriers which were very expensive, came in 50% over budget, because we thought we'd have to follow America into a war in the Pacific. 'Now America's changed its geopolitical orientation, we've been left twisting in the wind.' Ukraine's ambassador to the UK and former military chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the US is "destroying" the established world order on Thursday. He said the White House had "questioned the unity of the whole Western world". He told an audience: "We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order." On Wednesday, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz confirmed the US had paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. He added that the Trump administration was pausing and reviewing "all aspects of this relationship". The US has shared intelligence with Ukraine since the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. It paused military aid to Kyiv on Monday following a dramatic breakdown in relations in the Oval Office last week, when Zelenskyy was told to leave after an angry meeting with Trump in which the US President accused him of 'gambling with world war three'.
