We should all raise a toast to Starmer's India trade deal

Boris Johnson didn’t say which Diwali.

- JOHN RENTOUL CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

When the architect of Brexit promised a trade deal with India “by Diwali”, he could not have imagined that the deal would actually be signed three years later by a Labour prime minister who had fought the 2019 election on a promise of a second referendum to try to keep Britain in the EU.

It is a paradox that two of the few achievements of Keir Starmer’s premiership were made possible by something that he so tenaciously opposed as the shadow minister responsible for Labour’s Brexit policy. But he is entitled to boast that he has negotiated deals where his pro-Brexit predecessors tried and failed.

Admittedly, the American deal is merely an attempt to limit the damage done by Donald Trump’s tariffs — but that is better than not limiting the damage, and it is better than the terms that would apply if we were still in the EU.