Backlash after minister says UK could sell arms to India

The government is facing a backlash after the business secretary suggested the UK should not be "squeamish" about selling arms to India amid escalating tensions with Pakistan.

- KATE DEVLIN MILLIE COOKE

India has launched missile strikes in what it says is a response to a terror attack in Kashmir that claimed 26 lives last month. But Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, called the pre-dawn airstrikes an "act of war" and responded with shelling.

Just hours after the strikes, UK business secretary Jonathan Reynolds did not rule out supplying India with weapons. He said the UK would "always be willing to talk to a fellow democracy if that was something they were interested in", although he added that military equipment was "not a specific part of the trade deal" the UK struck with India this week.

He told Sky News that Britain should "not be squeamish" about exporting our defence sector to other markets around the world, adding that the UK "should be proud that we've got the capacity to defend ourselves".