UK politics live: Labour accuse Tories of ‘made-up tax row’ after striking £25bn India trade deal

Labour has accused Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of confecting a “made-up row” over the newly-struck India trade deal to “distract from her failure” to secure a similar agreement.

Hailed as a “landmark” agreement by Sir Keir Starmer, the government announced on Monday that it had reached a deal to boost bilateral trade with India by £25bn – in what marks Britain’s biggest post-Brexit trade agreement.

While Boris Johnson famously promised to make such an agreement by Diwali in October 2022, an India trade deal has remained elusive for UK successive prime ministers. The new deal will immediately cut tariffs on whisky, gin, cars and cosmetics, while reducing barriers to imports of Indian textiles, food and jewellery.

However, Ms Badenoch claimed she had “refused to sign this deal” while trade secretary, in part due to a condition – similar to those already in place with more than a dozen other countries – that some Indian and British workers will avoid paying national insurance for the first three years in their destination country.

A Labour spokesperson accused Ms Badenoch of “desperately seeking to distract from her failure with a made-up row about a standard tax agreement that will benefit British workers abroad”.