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

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

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: With me right now is Gavin Gray out of the UK. Hey, Gevin,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hi there, head listen this business about the Indian workers
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  Speaker 2: through on the FTA. How do you think this is
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  Speaker 2: going to go down?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: It's interesting. So the government really heralding this free trade
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  Speaker 3: agreement yesterday saying how much it'll add to the economy,
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  Speaker 3: and it has taken three years to get here. So
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  Speaker 3: there would have been other MPs who were in the
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  Speaker 3: government now on the supposition side, who were thinking we
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  Speaker 3: should have got this through because of the good publicity.
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  Speaker 3: But as people have been pouring over some of the
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  Speaker 3: fine detail, some of them are saying now, actually there's
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  Speaker 3: lines in it which will mean that British workers are
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  Speaker 3: seriously undercut. So one aspect of this free trade agreement
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  Speaker 3: is that there will be an exemption on paying national
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  Speaker 3: insurance contributions from one to three years. Nationally insurance contributions
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  Speaker 3: are something that often the employer will pay for every
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  Speaker 3: employee they have the government recently put it up for
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  Speaker 3: everyone and that has led to several large national chains saying, well,
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  Speaker 3: I'm afraid we're probably either going to have to put
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  Speaker 3: our prices up now or get rid of people, make
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  Speaker 3: them redundant, because these are costing in some instances roughly
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  Speaker 3: twenty thousand New Zealand dollars per employee per year. So
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  Speaker 3: it's big beer. And the idea that Indian workers maybe
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  Speaker 3: had to come in and not pay that means of
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  Speaker 3: course there'll be much cheaper to hire effectively for the employer.
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  Speaker 3: And so yeah, Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party and Reform
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  Speaker 3: all saying this is a massive mistake. We've opened the
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  Speaker 3: doors here, and although Labour has said no, there's no
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  Speaker 3: change in the immigration law, I think it will lead
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  Speaker 3: to many people thinking that's going to be a cheaper
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  Speaker 3: person to employ because I don't have to pay those
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  Speaker 3: National Insurance countribution And.
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  Speaker 2: Kevin, can I just keep it up to me on something?
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  Speaker 3: Right?
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  Speaker 2: So yesterday we were being told that Labor was not
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  Speaker 2: was potentially going to reverse the situation with the winter
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  Speaker 2: energy payments. What is it now?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, if they're saying they're not going to reverse that. Indeed,
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  Speaker 3: the Guardian is reporting one of the big papers here
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  Speaker 3: that they're raising the earnings threshold to qualify for the payment.
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  Speaker 3: That might be something they're looking at, but the actual
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  Speaker 3: scrapping of it is not going to happen. So these
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  Speaker 3: winter fuel payments there are a lump sum of roughly
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  Speaker 3: four hundred and forty New Zealand dollars a year for
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  Speaker 3: pensioners under the age of eighty, it's six hundred and
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  Speaker 3: sixty New Zealand dollars for the over eighties. It's paid
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  Speaker 3: in November and December, and it is effectively paid to
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  Speaker 3: try and help them with their heating bills. And Labor
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  Speaker 3: really cracked down on it and effectively scrapped it for
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  Speaker 3: almost most pensioners anyway, in a bid to save three
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  Speaker 3: and a bit mid billion pounds a year. But that
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  Speaker 3: has affected roughly nine million pensioners. And for a party
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  Speaker 3: that says it's the party of the people and was
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  Speaker 3: going to look after those who are the most vulnerable
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  Speaker 3: in society, this seemed to fly directly in the face
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  Speaker 3: of that, which was why the Health Secretary over the
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  Speaker 3: weekend said that yeah, we did badly in the local
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  Speaker 3: council elections last week, predominantly because people did not like
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  Speaker 3: that measure. However, the leader of the Labor party. The
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister is saying, we're not changing that. It's money
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  Speaker 3: we can't afford. We have to make these upcuts for
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  Speaker 3: the good, the overall common good, even though many pensioners, yes,
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  Speaker 3: won't like it.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it's getting a bit missy, isn't it new? Listen,
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  Speaker 2: how long have we got before the cardinals hit into
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  Speaker 2: the conclve.
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  Speaker 3: Well, at the moment the cardinals are getting ready to
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  Speaker 3: effectively go into mass. That mass is like the precursor
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  Speaker 3: to the start of the whole first day, and that
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  Speaker 3: begins in an hour and ten minutes when Saint Peter's Basilica.
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  Speaker 3: It'll be televised, and then in the afternoon the mobile
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  Speaker 3: phone signal within the territory of the Vatican will be deactivated,
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  Speaker 3: and indeed the cardinals will be asked to leave their
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  Speaker 3: mobile phones to one side, no radios, no televisions, no Internet.
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  Speaker 3: And the one hundred and thirty three electors of the
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  Speaker 3: new Pope will then process later this afternoon, in roughly
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  Speaker 3: eight hours time, to the Sistine Chapel. There they'll sing
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  Speaker 3: a litany and then the business starts, and that is
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  Speaker 3: effectively where the doors are locked. The conclave begins and
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  Speaker 3: we wait to see who is going to be voted
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  Speaker 3: in as the next pope, and everyone of course looking
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  Speaker 3: up at the chimneys from outside the building in order
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  Speaker 3: to see when the white smoke is issued indicating there
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  Speaker 3: has been a successful election. Incidentally, in the last two
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  Speaker 3: elections it hasn't taken more than two days, but in
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  Speaker 3: the past it has taken several days. So we'll see
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  Speaker 3: where this goes. A very very interesting election because so
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  Speaker 3: many of the cardinals were appointed by the previous pope,
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  Speaker 3: meaning not many of them this time around are European,
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  Speaker 3: in fact, less than half, and that the first time
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  Speaker 3: in history.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting. Hey, Gvin, thanks very much, appreciate it. Gavin Gray,
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  Speaker 2: UK correspondence.
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