The UK’s free trade deal with India will have “no impact on the immigration system”, the Trade Secretary has said.
Jonathan Reynolds said the agreement announced on Tuesday involved no changes to immigration rules, but “modest changes” to “business mobility”.
The deal will see Indian chefs, yoga teachers and musicians able to access the contractual services suppliers route, which had previously been closed to India, but with their numbers capped at 1,800.
In its own statement announcing the deal, the Indian government said the agreement “eases mobility for professionals”, including intra-company transfers and business visitors.
New Delhi also said the deal would provide “immense opportunities for talented and skilled Indian youth” in the UK, particularly in financial and professional services.
Mr Reynolds said: “I want to be clear, there is no impact on the immigration system of the deal that we have agreed, there’s no changes or even the guarantee of existing provision on things like student visas, which I know there has been a lot of speculation about.”
He later added: “I know there’s been a lot of speculation on post-study work visas, on youth mobility, on specific visas for healthcare workers: just to confirm, that is not changing at all as part of this deal.”
Former Conservative home secretary Suella Braverman criticised the deal, saying she had blocked an agreement with India while in office “because I was not willing to grant concessions on visas”.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she accused the Government of having “caved and opened our labour market to more Indian workers who will be cheaper to hire than Brits.
“This is not the way to cut migration or support British workers. Haven’t you learnt anything from the last few days?”
Indian nationals already account for the highest proportion of work visas and the second highest proportion of study visas issued to people applying to come to the UK.
In 2024, some 81,463 work visas were issued to Indian nationals, 22% of the total number of work visas, including 30,301 health and care worker visas.
However, last year also saw the number of work visas issued to Indian nationals fall by 50%, most likely due to changes to immigration rules banning overseas care workers from bringing family dependents and increasing the salary threshold for skilled workers.
The number of study visas issued to Indians also fell last year, from 159,371 in 2023 to 92,355 in 2024.
