Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK and India agreeing to a trade deal after three years of talks

A boost in trade for the UK and India after finalising a long-desired free trade deal.

It focuses on tariff reductions for British and Indian goods across almost all sectors, with a boost on UK car and alcohol industries.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacks the deal further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With me right now? Is Gavin Gray out of the UK? Hey, Gevin,
hi there head listen this business about the Indian workers
through on the FTA. How do you think this is
going to go down?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, it's interesting. So the government really heralding this free
trade agreement yesterday saying how much it'll add to the economy,
and it has taken three years to get here. So
there would have been other MPs who were in the
government now on the supposition side, who were thinking we
should have got this through because of the good publicity.
But as people have been pouring over some of the

(00:30):
fine detail, some of them are saying, now, actually there's
lines in it which will mean that British workers are
seriously undercut. So one aspect of this free trade agreement
is that there will be an exemption on paying national
insurance contributions from one to three years. Nationally insurance contributions
are something that often the employer will pay for every

(00:52):
employee they have. The government recently put it up for
everyone and that has led to several large national chain
saying well, I'm afraid we're probably either going to have
to put our prices up now or get rid of people,
make them redundant because these are costing in some instances
roughly twenty thousand New Zealand dollars per employee per year.

(01:15):
So it's big beer and the idea that Indian workers
maybe had to come in and not pay that means
of course there'll be much cheaper to hire effectively for
the employer. And so yeah, Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party
and Reform or saying this is a massive mistake. We've
opened the doors here and although Labor has said no,

(01:37):
there's no change in the immigration law, I think it
will lead to many people thinking that's going to be
a cheaper person to employ because I don't have to
pay those a National insurance contributors.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And Kevin, can I just keep it up to a
me on something?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So yesterday we were being told that Labor was not
was potentially going to reverse the situation with the winter
energy payments. What is it now?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, no, if they're saying they're not going to reverse that. Indeed,
the Guardian is reporting one of the big papers here
that they're raising the earnings threshold to qualify for the payment.
That might be something they're looking at, but the actual
scrapping of it is not going to happen. So these
winter fuel payments there are a lump sum of roughly
four hundred and forty New Zealand dollars a year for

(02:19):
pensioners under the age of eighty, it's six hundred and
sixty New Zealand dollars for the over eighties. It's paid
in November and December, and it is effectively paid to
try and help them with their heating bills, and Labor
really cracked down on it and effectively scrapped it for
almost most pensioners anyway, in a bid to save three

(02:40):
and a bit mid billion pounds a year. But that
has affected roughly nine million pensioners. And for a party
that says it's the party of the people and was
going to look after those who are the most vulnerable
in society, this seemed to fly directly in the face
of that, which was why the Health Secretary over the
weekend said that, yeah, we did badly in the local

(03:03):
council elections last week, predominantly because people did not like
that measure. However, the leader of the Labor Party, the
Prime Minister, is saying we're not changing that. It's money
we can't afford. We have to make these upcuts for
the good, the overall common good, even though many pensioners, yes,
won't like it.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, it's getting a bit missie, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Now?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Listen, how long have we got before the cardinals hit
into the conclive.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, at the moment the cardinals are getting ready to
effectively go into mass. That mass is like the precursor
to the start of the whole first day, and that
begins in an hour and ten minutes when sent Peter's Basilica.
It'll be televised and then in the afternoon the mobile
phone signal within the territory of the Vatican will be deactivated,

(03:51):
and indeed the cardinals will be asked to leave their
mobile phones to one side. No radios, no televisions, no Internet.
And the one hundred and thirty three electors of the
new Pope will then process later this afternoon, in roughly
eight hours time, to the Sistine Chapel. There they'll sing

(04:12):
a litany and then the business starts, and that is
effectively where the doors are locked, the conclave begins and
we wait to see who is going to be voted
in as the next Pope, and everyone of course looking
up at the chimneys from outside the building in order
to see when the white smoke is issued indicating there
has been a successful election. Incidentally, in the last two

(04:33):
elections it hasn't taken more than two days, but in
the past it has taken several days. So we'll see
where this goes. A very very interesting election because so
many of the cardinals were appointed by the previous pope,
meaning not many of them this time around are European.
In fact, less than half and that is the first
time in history.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Interesting. Hey, Gevin, thanks very much, appreciate it. Gevin Gray,
UK correspondence.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
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