LONDON: Britain has no plans to change its approach to reducing net migration in order to help secure a free trade deal with India, the spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday.

There is growing optimism that a free trade deal between the countries could be concluded this year, as both sides agree on the broad contours of the pact, though the remaining topics to be discussed are some of the difficult.

Sunak, who heads to India for a G20 summit this weekend, told his ministers this week that negotiations were progressing but that he would only agree an approach that worked for the whole of Britain.

In June, trade minister Kemi Badenoch said Britain would discuss temporary business visas as part of trade talks but not broader immigration commitments or access to Britain’s labour market for Indian workers.

“The prime minister believes that the current levels of migration are too high ... To be crystal clear, there are no plans to change our immigration policy to achieve this free trade agreement and that includes student visas,” Sunak’s spokesperson told journalists.

Interior minister Suella Braverman last year sparked a row with comments about the possible impact of Indian migrants in trade talks, citing concern both with any “open borders migration policy with India” and those who overstay visas.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

Anti-women state
Updated 25 Nov, 2024

Anti-women state

GLOBALLY, women are tormented by the worst tools of exploitation: rape, sexual abuse, GBV, IPV, and more are among...
IT sector concerns
25 Nov, 2024

IT sector concerns

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ambitious plan to increase Pakistan’s IT exports from $3.2bn to $25bn in the ...
Israel’s war crimes
25 Nov, 2024

Israel’s war crimes

WHILE some powerful states are shielding Israel from censure, the court of global opinion is quite clear: there is...
Short-changed?
Updated 24 Nov, 2024

Short-changed?

As nations continue to argue, the international community must recognise that climate finance is not merely about numbers.
Overblown ‘threat’
24 Nov, 2024

Overblown ‘threat’

ON the eve of the PTI’s ‘do or die’ protest in the federal capital, there seemed to be little evidence of the...
Exclusive politics
24 Nov, 2024

Exclusive politics

THERE has been a gradual erasure of the voices of most marginalised groups from Pakistan’s mainstream political...