Indian officials told The Times on Wednesday that a landmark India-United Kingdom (UK) trade deal is on the “verge of collapse” after British Home Secretary Suella Braverman criticised Indian migrants for overstaying their visas.
According to the report, Indian officials were livid about Braverman’s remarks and said the “relationship has taken a step back.” A source in New Delhi told the newspaper that officials were “shocked and disappointed” by the “disrespectful” remarks.
“There’s still a lot of goodwill but if certain individuals are still embedded in the government, it will paralyse the talks,” the source said, urging Prime Minister Liz Truss to “disassociate” herself from Braverman’s remarks.
In an interview with The Spectator last week, Braverman expressed concern that a free trade deal with India would allow Indians free movement in the UK and more visa flexibility. She called this a bad deal for the UK, claiming that it would allow more Indians to overstay their visas. In fact, she said that “the largest group of people who overstay are Indian migrants.”
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She noted that the deal would add to the overall rise of illegal immigrants in the UK. Braverman said she wanted migration to the UK to fall and claimed this was the reason she campaigned for Brexit. “I have concerns about having an open borders migration policy with India because I don’t think that’s what people voted for with Brexit,” the Home Secretary told the magazine.
Immediately following her comments, the Indian High Commission in London criticised Braverman. It said that the issue of Indian migrants overstaying their visas is part of the trade deal negotiations and “any comment on these matters may not be appropriate.”
“India is committed to working with the government of the UK to facilitate the return of Indian citizens who have overstayed their visa period here in the UK,” the High Commission noted. It claimed that “action has been initiated on all of the cases referred to the High Commission.”
According to The Times, India has been demanding more work and student visas for its citizens as part of the trade deal negotiations. “Mobility has been the key Indian ask and everything else—financial services, banking, education, rules of origin on whisky, etc, hinges on the mobility ask. And Suella has gone and pulled the rug from under that mobility ask,” a UK official said.
If Liz Truss really wanted a trade deal with India, making Suella Braverman Home Secretary was a very, very bad idea. How this is unfolding is entirely predictable given the personnel involved and also very Brexit - the choice between trade and immigration arising again.
— Nick Tyrone (@NicholasTyrone) October 12, 2022
“They were apoplectic. Mad doesn’t even come close to describing how angry they are,” the official said about Indian negotiators’ reaction to Braverman’s remarks. The report further states that Conservative MPs have accused Braverman of trying to sabotage the trade deal. However, the British Home Office said that Braverman and Truss are united on the question of higher immigration, and talks to address this issue are ongoing.
Against this backdrop, Politico reported that Indian PM Narendra Modi had cancelled plans to visit the UK later this month to finalise the deal.
That being said, according to The Hindu, Modi has postponed his trip to early November and is keen on concluding the deal soon despite the setback.
Braverman has been a staunch proponent of reducing migration into the UK, saying that increased migration leads to societal problems and identity politics. She even blamed last month’s Hindu-Muslim riots across the UK on new migrants. “The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself combined with the corrosive aspects of identity politics has led us astray,” Braverman said in her first speech after becoming Home Secretary.