Sir Keir Starmer will resist growing demands from British business leaders to provide more UK visas for highly skilled workers from India.
While flying to Mumbai for a two-day trade visit with more than 100 business chiefs, the prime minister said opening up visas for Indian workers to come to the UK “isn’t part of the plan”, he added.
India reportedly pushed for far more visa access to the UK when the two countries were finalising their trade deal earlier this year.
But while heading on his first major trade mission to India, which comes after a UK-India trade deal was struck earlier this year, the prime minister told journalists: “The issue is not about visas. It’s about … engagement and investment and jobs and prosperity coming into the United Kingdom.”
Sir Keir also reiterated that, when it comes to visas, ministers were considering whether to punish countries who refuse to take back people deported from the UK.
The government is “looking at whether there should be a link between visas and returns agreements,” he said, though he added this would not apply to India, with which the UK has a successful returns agreement.
The PM has pledged to cut net migration to the UK and has come under intense pressure to cut both legal and illegal immigration from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives.
But he is also under pressure to find some economic good news on his whirlwind trade visit, following warnings of a £50bn black hole in the government’s finances and widespread forecasts Rachel Reeves will have to raise taxes in November’s Budget.
Sir Keir hailed the UK-India trade agreement brokered this summer as “a launchpad for growth” on his first major trade visit since becoming prime minister.
Coming with him to India are more than 100 top business leaders from the UK, including the Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha.
Also included are bosses from British Airways, which confirmed it will introduce a third daily flight between Delhi and Heathrow next year, and Manchester airport, which will launch a new direct route to Delhi operated by IndiGo.
But the PM is also under pressure to say “enough is enough” and call for the end of the eight-year detention of British citizen Jagtar Singh Johal, a Sikh activist, when he meets his counterpart Narendra Modi.
His meeting with PM Modi could also be difficult for other reasons. He joked he had not “sent birthday congratulations to Putin, nor am I going to do so”, after Mr Modi wished the Russian leader happy birthday just hours before the PM left London.
The trade deal with the south Asian nation, signed this summer after three long years of negotiations, is said to be worth £4.8bn a year to Britain.
Sir Keir said the deal was “the best secured by any country” but added “the story doesn’t stop there” as he hailed the agreement as “a launchpad for growth”.
“With India set to be the third biggest economy in the world by 2028, and trade with them about to become quicker and cheaper, the opportunities waiting to be seized are unparalleled,” he said.
“That’s why I’ll be flying the flag for British business alongside 125 of our biggest household names in Mumbai this week, because growth in India for them means more choice, opportunity and jobs at home for the British people.”
Business secretary Peter Kyle, who is also on the trip, said the deal “places British businesses at the front of the queue to access a huge and ever-growing market”.
“Now we are hitting the ground running and using every means necessary to ready businesses to take full advantage of the massive wins we’ve secured once the deal comes into force so we can deliver growth, jobs, and prosperity at home.”
The UK governmentsaid the agreement also focuses on whisky, gin, cars and cosmetics and will boost the economy and cut prices for consumers.
Indian temporary workers and their employers in the UK will also get a three-year exemption from national insurance contributions.
The trade deal is expected to raise bilateral trade by £25.5bn per year, with UK exports to India projected to grow by nearly 60 per cent.
India is currently the fourth largest economy globally and is projected to become the third largest by 2028.
Britain is also hoping to capitalise on a boom in demand for higher education in India, where an estimated 70 million places will be needed by 2035, creating an opportunity for UK universities.
