An ambitious trade deal between India and the UK, described as the “biggest of all” after Brexit, is on the “verge of collapse” because of British home secretary Suella Braverman’s comment about Indian migrants, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in The Times claimed that Ms Braverman’s comments about Indian migrants overstaying in the UK had sparked furious responses from some Indian ministers as they were seen as “disrespectful” towards New Delhi.
Officials in the Indian government were allegedly left “shocked and disappointed” by Ms Braverman’s remarks which raised “concerns” and “reservations” about the deal, the report said.
In a message to the UK government, the Times source urged UK prime minister Liz Truss to publicly “disassociate” herself from Ms Braverman’s comments if she wanted to revive the deal.
However, a government source at India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry dismissed the report, saying that no one from the government or people part of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) team spoke to the newspaper as “negotiations are a delicate subject”.
The source told The Independent that the negotiations on the FTA are continuing and will conclude as early as possible. “The Times report is off the cuff. Everyone here is amused [by the report],” the source said.
“There are no issues with higher immigration but discussions are going on for three-year visas for intra-corporate transferees in the service sector which are called mobility issues,” the source said.
A Department for International Trade spokesperson told The Independent that India and UK have a close and positive relationship along with a “thriving trade partnership”. But refrained from giving details of live negotiations.
“We continue to seek improvements to our current trading relationship, and this is why we are negotiating a high-ambition Free Trade Agreement.
“We remain clear that we won’t sacrifice quality for speed, and will only sign when we have a deal that meets both countries’ interests.”
Ms Braverman who is herself the child of India-origin migrants told the British magazine Spectator last week that the current trade deal is not what people voted for with Brexit, raising concerns over more work and study visas for Indians.
“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,” said Ms Braverman.
“I do have some reservations. Look at migration in this country — the largest group of people who overstay are Indian migrants. We even reached an agreement with the Indian government last year to encourage and facilitate better co-operation in this regard. It has not necessarily worked very well,” Ms Braverman added.
Her comments came as trade officials from India and UK are racing to finish work on the £24bn FTA before the Hindu festival Diwali holiday deadline set by Ms Truss and Boris Johnson.
The FTA was touted as a possible “shot in the arm” for Ms Truss amid an economic crisis in the country. It was her flagship project as she conducted the opening rounds of trade talks in 2021 as International Trade Secretary in Johnson cabinet.
On 4 October, after her comments on FTA, Ms Braverman was criticised in India for extolling on the virtues the British rule in its colonies such as India and Kenya.
“I’m proud of the British Empire, I’m not going to apologise for our past history,” said Ms Braverman said in response to a question from The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope.
The British Empire brought “infrastructure, legal system, civil service and military to countries like Kenya and Mauritius”, she said evoking a controversial topic.
Economists have been saying that the UK needs the trade deal more than India as it is a huge market for British products and services post-Brexit. They say such comments will definitely sabotage the deal and hurt the UK economy.
“Such comments add to a sense of mistrust which undermines trade negotiations,” Pranjal Sharma, an economic analyst and author, told The Independent.
India is the world’s largest open-market democracy, he added. “In the gloomy outlook for the global economy by the IMF, India has been projected to grow the highest at 6.1 per cent for 2023, while the UK is expected to grow at just 0.3 per cent”, he added.
“This figure itself indicates that the UK desperately needs a growing market to sell its products at competitive prices.”
“Ms Suella Braverman glorifying colonialism reflects poorly on the UK. Countries like Kenya and India remember the atrocities of the British raj and find it abhorrent that a senior minister of UK justifies the cruelties,” he added.
Sushandhu Kumar, economist at Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF), said the deal is on the back burner because the UK is finding is less beneficial.
“The trade deficit in goods for the UK with India has recently widened in favour of India, which adds to the further fear that free trade might not be as beneficial for the services sectors from the UK perspective,” he said.
Secretary for International Trade Kemi Badenoch raised concerns over the deal opening up the UK’s services sector for more Indian immigration.
“I am not in a rush to sign trade deals. I want good deals with these countries. We need to make sure that every deal is great for the UK,” she said.
