London | Britain's former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is the frontrunner to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party chief and Opposition Leader, has claimed that she blocked the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) over demands for more visas, according to UK media reports.
The Nigerian heritage shadow minister, who is going head-to-head in an ongoing Tory membership vote with former Cabinet colleague Robert Jenrick, has indicated that one of the reasons the FTA could not be signed off by the Sunak-led Tory government was due to the Indian side expecting more concessions over the issue of migration.
“As business secretary, even as I was trying to do things to limit immigration, we had an India FTA where they kept trying to bring in migration and I said no. It's one of the reasons why we didn't sign it,” Badenoch reportedly told ‘The Telegraph'.
But some of her former Tory ministerial colleagues countered in ‘The Times' that the claims are unlikely because Badenoch was pushing for a deal as she oversaw several rounds of negotiations towards an FTA expected to significantly enhance the GBP 38 billion a year bilateral trading partnership.
“Kemi just wanted to get a deal at all costs and didn't really think that the objections that were being put forward were serious. She said they were ideologically driven, that they were impractical and weren't conducive to good relations with the Indians," a former Cabinet minister was quoted as saying.
"Kemi wanted a trophy to show post-Brexit benefits and there was a zeal to achieve it,” the former minister said.
“The reality was, all the bargaining power was with the Indians and they had more leverage in negotiations than we did. There was a lot more pressure on us to do all the running, and they were quite nonchalant about doing a deal. That was where the balance of power lay and we were always starting from a weaker position,” the ex-minister said.
A source close to Badenoch, however, denied claims that she was prepared to sign a deal at any cost and said that the Indian government had decided not to sign a deal with the Conservative government in the hope that it might be able to negotiate better terms under Labour.
“Kemi didn't want to do a deal that would have changed any UK immigration rules. It's categorically untrue, she would have never done that. India held out because they knew that under a Labour government, they would get a better deal on students and social security,” the source was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.
“She did not put visas on the table, she did not sanction her officials to offer up access to the labour market at any point,” the source added.
Meanwhile, while reports from India indicate the FTA negotiations under the Prime Minister Keir Starmer-led Labour Party government are set to commence next month, officials in the UK are not setting any timeline for picking up after 14 rounds of negotiations.
“We remain committed to securing a trade deal with India and intend to resume talks as soon as possible,” Starmer's foreign affairs spokesperson at 10 Downing Street told PTI this week.
Badenoch and Jenrick are trading blows on various policy areas, with immigration emerging as a key focal point as they continue on the campaign trail to win votes from an estimated 140,000 Conservative members.
Sunak's successor is scheduled to be declared on November 2, following the British Indian leader's resignation in the wake of the party's bruising general election defeat in July under his leadership.