Wed, August 23, 2023
Rishi Sunak is set to visit India next month for talks with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister - Leon Neal/Reuters
India is demanding more visas for nurses and care workers as the price of a free-trade deal with the UK, according to sources in New Delhi.
Indian negotiators are understood to be holding out for concessions on visas as they enter the 13th round of talks.
The negotiations will encompass some of the most sensitive and difficult issues, including the demands to ease restrictions on workers and students entering the UK.
It comes as Kemi Badenoch, the Trade Secretary, arrives in India on Thursday to try to give political impetus to the discussions.
However, UK officials played down speculation that there could be a free-trade deal ready to sign when Rishi Sunak visits India next month for talks with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister.
“We have the really tricky issues to deal with next,” said one source.
India is asking for easier access to the UK for workers in “certain services which can only be done locally”, such as nurses, caregivers, IT professionals and financial consultants, according to Piyush Goyal, India’s trade chief.
‘We have to iron out some differences’
A senior official in India’s commerce ministry told The Telegraph: “There are some areas like visa and protection of Indian industries where we have to iron out some differences. The trade deal will happen and it will be in the best interest of both the countries.”
However, UK officials have made clear that there will be no special cases made for skilled workers from India, such as nurses and care workers, under the Government’s points-based immigration system.
Ms Badenoch has told MPs that the Government will only budge on agreements which make it “easier for highly skilled professionals to deliver services in each other’s markets on a short-term and temporary basis”.
A source said: “Anything that is to be agreed has to be very specific, targeted and works for the UK economy.”
The Prime Minister is expected to visit New Delhi for the G20 leaders’ summit being held on September 9 and 10. Under Boris Johnson’s premiership, the UK said it was seeking to complete a deal by October last year.
But remarks from Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, voicing “reservations” about relaxing immigration controls for Indians as part of any agreement provoked an angry response from ministers and officials in New Delhi.
Sunak and Modi need to ‘make some concessions’
An Indian diplomat said they were still hopeful for an agreement before the end of the year, and for Britain to relax its position over the movement of skilled Indian workers.
“The vast majority of the deal is now done, but it requires Prime Minister Sunak and Prime Minister Modi to sit down and make some concessions,” the diplomat said.
Pat McFadden, Labour’s shadow treasury minister, told Sky News visas for Indian workers have “always been a key demand when it comes to Indian trade negotiations”.
He said his party would not rule out increasing work visa numbers in order to strike a deal, saying: “You wouldn’t rule it out because you might have other interests that made that sensible.
“There are goods and services that we want to export to India that could create huge wealth in the UK if we got the chance to do that, you’ve got to look at these things in the round.”
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