Keir Starmer, the human rights barrister elected Britain’s Prime Minister with a landslide victory in July 2024, had pledged to get the much-anticipated Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India over the line. Just days before announcing his resignation at the steps of 10 Downing Street in London on Monday morning, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France, where both leaders set July 15 as the date for the FTA to come into force. Now, around the same time as the implementation of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), expected to significantly boost the £48 billion bilateral trading relationship, the UK is expected to have a new leader in his place. “It’s not just a piece of paper, it’s a launchpad for growth. With India set to be the third biggest economy in the world by 2028, and trade with them about to become quicker and cheaper, the opportunities waiting to be seized are unparalleled,” Starmer had said during his visit to Mumbai last October. The 63-year-old MP for Holborn and St Pancras in London was credited with achieving an impressive reversal of fortunes for Labour after the party’s crushing election defeat in December 2019. An olive branch for diaspora The other turnaround he worked hard on rebuilding was his party’s connection with British Indians, alienated under former leader Jeremy Corbyn over a perceived anti-India stance on Kashmir.
