Former UK minister Kemi Badenoch, who is the leading candidate to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party chief and opposition leader, has said that she blocked the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) due to demands for additional visas, according to UK media reports. The shadow minister of Nigerian heritage suggested that one of the reasons the Sunak-led government could not finalize the FTA was because India was seeking greater concessions regarding 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 told ‘The Telegraph’.
However, some of Badenoch’s former Tory ministerial colleagues argued that her claims are unlikely, as she was actively advocating for a deal and overseeing multiple rounds of negotiations aimed at an FTA that could significantly boost the £38 billion annual 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 told Times.
“Kemi wanted a trophy to show post-Brexit benefits and there was a zeal to achieve it. 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,” they added.
Badenoch and Jenrick are engaging in a heated exchange over various policy issues, with immigration becoming a central focus as they campaign to secure votes from approximately 1,40,000 Conservative members. The successor to Sunak is set to be announced on November 2, following the British Indian leader’s resignation after the party’s significant general election defeat in July under his leadership.