Braverman in major victory after Hunt ‘concedes defeat’ on India work visas

People in India speak about Sunak as he meets with G20 leaders

Allies of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman believe she has won a victory in cabinet after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt appeared to rule out handing out more work visas to India in exchange for a trade deal.

During the summer it appeared that the UK Government was prepared to accede to Inian demands that thousands more visas should be handed out to land the historic trade deal with one of the fast growing major economies.

But with the Prime Minister at the G20 in India and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also joining finance ministers there it appears that the UK will now not budge on the issue.

Mr Hunt told the Independent that it was “difficult to imagine how much more we could give on that front”.

The Chancellor had been identified as the member of the government most in support of opening up borders to increase immigration.

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Ms Braverman had been described as “a lone voice” in the Cabinet opposing more migration with both the Chancellor and Education Gillian Keegan opposed to stricter controls.

She had been concerned that the demands to open the doors to more students and low paid workers to come from India would “lead to an open doors migration policy” with the country.

There were also concerns that the giving of thousands of extra visas would not be met with good enough concessions on reducing tariffs on things like whisky and cars.

But one Tory MP suggested that Mr Hunt’s comments showed that Ms Braverman was winning the argument.

The MP said: “We thought [the Home Secretary] had lost the argument but it appears Hunt has conceded defeat.

“This is definitely a win for Suella.”

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There had been strong opposition on the Tory backbenches to handing out visas to India.

The influential rightwing Common Sense Group of around 50 MPs founded by former minister Sir John Hayes had written a letter to Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch opposing the plan.

The issue had also been one of the reasons that Ms Braverman quit the Liz Truss government a year ago hastening its end after just 49 days.

While Brexit opened up the possibiolity of trade deals it also was won on a promise to “take back control” of Britain’s borders and reduce immigration wih a points based system.

But despite visas being a sticking point Mr Hunt reported that he believes a historic trade deal with India could be “just weeks away”.

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