WATCH: Jonathan Reynolds HITS BACK at claims UK-India trade deal 'betrays British workers'

GB News

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds faced intense questioning on GB News yesterday over the newly unveiled UK-India trade deal.The questioning came after accusations that the deal creates a "two-tier tax system" that "betrays British workers."READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Transcript

00:00Good morning to you, Mr. Reynolds. Let's stay on India, Pakistan, shall

00:03we, and that escalating tension between the two countries, obviously very

00:07concerning. Were you aware of India's plans to strike Pakistan? No, they

00:15don't share that kind of information with us. You will understand we have

00:18been monitoring the situation after the appalling terrorist attack in

00:23Kashmir some days ago and might have anticipated some kind of response, but

00:27we wouldn't expect the details of that to be shared with us, no. Could you

00:30share the details of the trade deal with the Secretary of State? I want to

00:37understand it. I'm just not sure I see the full benefits of it. Could you

00:41explain to me why we're doing or why you believe we're doing so well out of

00:45this? I could and I'm delighted to. So this is a massive deal that will benefit

00:53every part of the UK. It's the biggest trade deal we've done since

00:57Brexit. It's the best trade deal India has ever offered anybody. India is

01:02obviously a major economy, but it's growing so fast. It's the fastest growing

01:05major economy. And some examples of how this will benefit every part of the UK.

01:09So India is the biggest whisky market in the world. We're pretty good at making

01:13that. The tariff at the minute is 150 percent. That halves immediately, then it

01:16falls to 40 percent in time. On electric vehicles, again, something we're very good at

01:20making, 110 percent tariff becomes 10 percent over time for the high-end

01:25vehicles that we specialize in. For lamb and salmon, iconic British products,

01:29it's a 33 percent tariff and that goes to zero. And for services, even more exciting.

01:34So we get access to something no other country in the world has access to, which

01:38is Indian government procurement worth nearly 40 billion pounds a year. Our own

01:42businesses can compete alongside domestic businesses in India. So for every part of

01:47the UK, this means more growth, higher wages, more jobs, more tax revenue, exactly the kind

01:53of things that will make a difference to people's lives and make them better off.

01:56It has emerged, though, that Indian nationals that are moving here will no longer need to pay

02:01national insurance contributions for three years. So you have been accused

02:05of two-tiered tax for Indian migrants. Are you betraying British workers with this deal?

02:12No, absolutely not. And I'm delighted to be able to clear this up unequivocally.

02:19So let's be clear. If you were an Indian national in the UK and you applied for a job and a British

02:24person applied for the same job, you pay exactly the same tax. This is a very specific situation

02:29that we already have for 50 other countries where if you are an Indian national temporarily seconded to

02:35the UK or a UK national temporarily seconded to India, you don't pay both countries tax systems.

02:41If you're a UK citizen, you pay into ours. If you're an Indian national, you pay into theirs. It just makes

02:46it easier to move people between companies for a short period of time. But we would never do any deal.

02:52That undercuts British workers that leads to any sort of two-tier tax system. I say again,

02:57we have this with 50 other countries and I don't hear many complaints about that. I think what this is

03:02about, frankly, is people not being able to accept this is a major benefit. Well, the biggest trade

03:08deal we've done, as I say, since Brexit, everyone's going to benefit. We should all be getting behind

03:12this, these things that we can do together to make every bit of the UK better off.

03:16Yeah. But for British businesses with no

03:18national insurance, it's going to be cheaper, isn't it, to hire Indian workers rather than British

03:24workers. And this is at a time when the Labour government is obviously trying to get more

03:28people into work. It just seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?

03:33No, it wouldn't be the case. Just again, I say no one is being undercut by an arrangement of this

03:37kind. It means our people pay our tax system. Indian nationals pay theirs if they're temporarily

03:42for business mobility purposes seconded to each other's country. If you were recruiting someone,

03:47you pay the same taxes that are on it. Of course, even if you were transferring someone within a

03:52business, a multinational to the UK, you still have to pay the NHS surcharge. You still have to pay the

03:56higher costs of relocating people. And it's only temporary. If you want long-term staff,

04:00you've got to recruit them in the UK and pay that. I say again, there is no impact whatsoever

04:05on the immigration system from this deal. No changes to the points-based immigration system.

04:09There are no guarantees of post-study visas that was in the public domain at one point as an ask.

04:15There's no changes in terms of visas for healthcare workers. There's a very modest change where a capped

04:20number of yoga teachers can apply for an existing visa in a way they couldn't before. I don't think

04:24we're going to be swamped, frankly, by Indian yoga instructors as a result of this. It doesn't

04:30impact the immigration system. It does impact jobs, growth, wages in every part of the UK,

04:35with a particular benefit for Scotland, the north of England and the Midlands. It's frankly exactly

04:40what we need. How are you going to deal with people who are overstaying their visas, though? Because

04:44the last set of data that we have, which is actually from 2020 from the Home Office, Indian nationals

04:49were the largest group of overstayers by nationality at the time and concerned that that is still the case.

04:57Well, the point about people overstaying their visas and becoming illegal migrants rather than

05:02part of legal migration is a massive issue. You've seen a significant increase, actually,

05:06in deportations of people overstaying since the change of government. The Home Office cracking on

05:12with that job. So you're right to say you cannot allow a situation where legal migrants become

05:16illegal migrants. But the kind of people we're talking about, highly skilled people coming for

05:21short-term business mobility, to be frank, that is not the problem I think we're talking about

05:25in this area. I think what we have to do more broadly is bring the immigration numbers down. They've

05:29come down a fifth since the change of government, but they're still too high. And we've got to think

05:34about who is coming. We've got a lot of low-skilled people relatively coming to the UK. I welcome

05:39talent coming to the UK, but we've got to orientate that much more to the highly skilled sectors that we

05:44need. And that is part of our plans as a government. But totally recognise public concern is high on

05:49immigration. What we inherited is not a good situation or a sustainable one. We've got to bring

05:53those numbers down in a way that works with business. That's exactly what we're doing.

05:56And Jonathan, when would we begin to see changes being implemented because of this agreement? How soon

06:05would that be?

06:06Yeah, look, it takes about a year, 12 months on either side to put fully in place the measures

06:14that the trade deal covers. That's because we've got to put through parliament here the changes in

06:18our tariffs. We'll have, for instance, cheaper clothing, cheaper footwear from India as part of

06:23things that we have offered to India but benefit our consumers. And the same on the Indian side.

06:27Slightly different system there. And then for some of the tariffs, if you take that whiskey tariff,

06:31it halves immediately. And then there is a process over time where it goes down from 75%, the half

06:37rate to 40%. Some things are removed immediately. The salmon and lamb tariff is removed immediately.

06:42Access to procurement. So as soon as we implement the deal on either side, you start to get some of

06:47those benefits. We will see, for instance, immediately on ratification, a reduction in our

06:51tariffs paid to India of about £400 million. That rises to over £900 million over 10 years.

06:58India gets slightly less from that because our tariffs are already lower. That's why they're

07:02seeing some other parts of the deal to make sure it's fair and balanced. But look, good trade deals

07:06are good for both sides. This is great for the UK, for every bit of the UK. But I think it is good

07:10for both sides. Again, something we absolutely should celebrate and need more of. Well, look,

07:15great to see you so enthusiastic about this. I hope it lives up to everything that you think it will.

07:21And I appreciate your time this morning. We've got to leave it there. Thank you very much.

07:25Thank you so much. Thank you.

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