Starmer chases economic growth on India trade trip

Sir Keir Starmer will resist growing demands from British business chiefs for more visas for highly skilled workers from India, he said yesterday as he flew to Mumbai for a trade trip. Opening up visas for Indian workers to come to the UK “isn't part of the plan”, he said.

- KATE DEVLIN WHITEHALL EDITOR IN MUMBAI

He told journalists on the plane to India's largest city: “The issue is not about visas. It's about ... engagement and investment and jobs and prosperity coming into the United Kingdom.”

The PM also reiterated that, when it comes to visas, ministers are considering whether to punish countriesthat refuse to take back people deported from the UK. The government is “looking at whether there should be a link between visas and returns agreements,” he said, though he added this would not apply to India, with which the UK has a successful returns agreement.

The PM has pledged to cut net migration to the UK and has come under intense pressure to cut both legal and illegal immigration from Nigel Farage's Reform UK party and Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives.

But he is also under pressure to find some economic good news on his whirlwind two-day trade visit, following warnings of a £50bn black hole in the government's finances and widespread forecasts Rachel Reeves will have to raise taxes in November's Budget.

Sir Keir hailed a UK-India trade agreement brokered this summer as "a launchpad for growth" on his first major trade visit since becoming prime minister.