Boris Johnson has opened the door to an offer on immigration to secure a trade deal with India.
The Prime Minister hinted that the UK could make a visa offer as part of a future free trade agreement with Delhi.
Speaking to reporters as he jetted out to India, he said there was a “massive shortage” of skilled workers in fields like IT and programming in the UK.
"We are aiming for an FTA (free trade agreement) by the end of the year,” he said.
Asked if immigration could be part of the agreement, he said: "On immigration I've always been in favour of having people coming to this country.
"We have a massive shortage in the UK, not least in experts in IT and programmers. We're short to the tune of hundreds of thousands in our economy.
"We need to have a professional approach but it has to be controlled."
The PM touches down in India today for a diplomatic push as he seeks to shift focus away from his political troubles at home.
The Prime Minister touched down in Ahmedabad this morning where he was greeted by Gujarati chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel and handed a series of bouquets of red flowers.
Organised displays of well-wishers lined his route, with posters adorned with his face and the message “Welcome to Gujarat” peppered along the streets.
Mr Johnson will take part in several business and cultural visits in Gujarat before travelling to Delhi for talks with India’s PM Narendra Modi on Friday.
Mr Johnson will use his visit to tout more than £1 billion in new investments and export deals, which No10 said would create nearly 11,000 jobs across the UK.
The PM will also hail a contract British-backed space firm OneWeb has signed for satellite launches with New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The satellite company, a project favoured by the PM’s former advisor Dominic Cummings, has already turned to Elon Musk’s Space X for help after being prevented from using Russian rockets.
Mr Johnson will visit Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, today before travelling to Delhi, where he will hold talks with Indian PM Narendra Modi tomorrow.
His visit provides a convenient excuse to be out of Westminster today when MPs hold a crunch vote on whether to probe if he misled Parliament over Partygate.
The PM pressed ahead with the long-delayed trip to India despite the escalating political turmoil.
In Delhi, Mr Johnson he is expected to press his Indian counterpart to distance himself from Vladimir Putin's Russia in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
But No 10 has been cautious to stress he will not seek to "lecture" Mr Modi, despite concerns that the Indian leader has not been strong enough in condemning the war.
Mr Johnson said he would challenge Mr Modi on tricky issues of India’s dependance on Russian oil and human rights.
He said: “I will of course bring up all the issues that we have between us in the way that friends and partners do including difficult consular and extradition cases and you would expect me to do that.
“But look I think the reason the UK-India relationship is in such a good place is that it is a partnership of friends and equals and we speak to each other in that.
“On hydrocarbons I would make the argument that everyone needs to move away from dependence on Putin’s hydrocarbons.”
