Nigel Farage has accused Keir Starmer of signing a trade deal with India that will make it 20% cheaper to employ Indian workers than British workers thanks to a major new tax concession.

This afternoon the Government confirmed it had come to an agreement, branding the post-Brexit deal “a new era for trade and the economy”.

However Under the terms of the deal, Indians coming to Britain to work will be exempt from paying National Insurance for three years.

While this deal is reciprocal, Sir Keir Starmer is under fire for granting the exemption after hiking the same tax for hard-working Brits.

Reacting to the news, Mr Farage singled out the NICs agreement, comparing the tax giveaway for Indian workers to the hike seen by businesses employing Brits.

He fumed: “Remember what happened at the Budget? Employers National Insurance went up by 2% for each worker, costing each company on average £1,000 a year per worker.

“And yet companies that bring in Indian workers, the companies themselves will pay no national insurance either. It means overall, it’s about 20% cheaper to employ an Indian after this deal than it is to employ a British worker.

“It’s honestly impossible to predict how many hundreds of thousands more will come on this deal… This government doesn’t give a damn about working people. The Labour Party have this time, in a big big way, betrayed working Britain.”

He accused Labour of refusing to understand why so many voted for Reform UK last week, and predicted that Keir Starmer‘s ratings will plummet even further.

He echoed criticism from the Tories, with Robert Jenrick pointing out: “Starmer has hiked National Insurance on Brits while giving an exemption to Indian migrants. British workers come last in Starmer’s Britain.”

He added that while serving as minister for immigration at the Home Office, he and Suella Braverman “refused to accept unfair and unreasonable visa demands in the negotiation with India.”

“Starmer has taken over and capitulated straight away. This will hurt British workers and encourage even more immigration when it is already ridiculously high.”

Meanwhile Ms Braverman, the former Home Secretary, said she blocked the trade deal on visas concessions. She accused Sir Keir of having “caved and opened our labour market to more Indian workers who will be cheaper to hire than Brits.”

Referencing Reform UK’s recent local election and by-election victories, she demanded to know: “Haven’t you learnt anything from the last few days?!”

A former Home Office official told the Express that the deal is a “huge capitulation” by the Government, and the National Insurance deal was never mentioned prior to the general election. They added: “India is literally laughing at us. They’re taking us for mugs.”

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Reform UK MP James McMurdock condemned the deal as “absolutely shocking”.

The Essex MP accused Labour of having “rigged the job market against the British. I simply cannot believe what I’m seeing.”

It is understood that Kemi Badenoch, while serving as Trade Secretary prior to the election, refused to cave in to negotiators demanding exemptions on visas and national insurance.

It is not yet known how many visas the Government has indicated it will be willing to grant Indians as a result of the deal, nor how much the National Insurance waiver will cost British taxpayers.

However in 2022 it was reported that the tens of thousands of Indian nationals already working in Britain pay as much as £500 million annually into the Treasury via NICs.