Sir Keir Starmer has begun the first full-blown trade mission to India since Theresa May was prime minister, bringing 125 UK CEOs, entrepreneurs and university leaders to Mumbai.
The prime minister flew on a plane with dozens of Britain’s most prominent businesspeople, including bosses from BA, Barclays, Standard Chartered, BT and Rolls-Royce, for the two-day trip designed to boost ties between the two countries.
Starmer will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, five months after the UK signed the first trade deal with India since Brexit.
The agreement has yet to be implemented, with controversial plans to waive national insurance for workers employed by big Indian businesses sent to the UK still the subject of a forthcoming consultation.
Speaking to journalists on the plane on the way out, the prime minister said he was determined to boost ties between the two countries.
The trip has been arranged to coincide with the Conservative Party conference, with the first day of meetings coinciding with Kemi Badenoch’s speech to activists in Manchester.
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However, the business delegation is likely to use the trip to lobby the prime minister not to put more taxes on them in the November budget.
Sir Keir has already turned down the wish of some of the CEOs on the trip to increase the number of visas.
“The visa situation hasn’t changed with the free trade agreement, and therefore we didn’t open up more visas,” he said.
He told business that it wasn’t right to focus on visas, telling them: “The issue is not about visas. It’s about business-to-business engagement and investment and jobs and prosperity coming into the United Kingdom.”
The prime minister sidestepped questions about Mr Modi’s support of Russian leader…
