From the first Indian-origin prime minister of the United Kingdom to an imminent free trade agreement, India-UK relations are better now than ever before. However, given the murmurs that the Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010, will be replaced by the Labour Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections, questions have arisen about what the India-UK relationship will look like under a different administration.
If this were 2019, and the party in question was a Labour still led by Jeremy Corbyn, there would not be much cause for optimism. At Labour’s annual conference in the autumn of 2019, the party passed a resolution condemning the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, came out in support of the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination, and called for international observers to be sent into the region. The resolution, expectedly, drew India’s ire and set in motion a frostiness in relations that lasted for the remainder of Corbyn’s leadership. Were Labour to have formed the government in 2019, its India policy would have come into conflict with one of India’s core non-negotiables — Kashmir — and bilateral relations would have been significantly hampered.
In the years following Labour’s embarrassing electoral rout in 2019, the party rebranded, selecting the pragmatic, moderate Keir Starmer in place of the idealistic socialist, Corbyn. Labour’s rebranding extended to India too, with Starmer reversing the party’s previously controversial positions by stating “any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament” to deliberate on and that Kashmir was a “bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully.” Encouragingly, at India Global Forum’s UK-India Week 2023, Starmer positioned his Labour Party as “changed” and termed its shift on India as a “reset” in relations.
Labour’s evolved outreach to British-Indians has been attributed in part to vote-bank politics. Although British- Indians have traditionally been a core Labour constituency, the percentage of those voting for Labour has steadily fallen. Many are migrating towards the Conservative Party, spurring concerns that such an exodus may be to Labour’s detriment in tight electoral races. The trends have been associated with Labour’s previously antagonistic positions on India and a growing aversion to its socially democratic platform given the British-Indian community’s rising economic fortunes. Starmer’s statements celebrating the Indian community “for the success story they are in 21st century Britain” seem designed to position Labour as a business-friendly, enterprise-encouraging, and aspiration-appreciating party to appeal to upwardly mobile British Indians.
Starmer-led Labour has also been proactive in presenting comprehensive aspirations in the articulation of its India policy, demonstrating a steadfast commitment towards engaging with and prioritising the India-UK partnership. At the UK-India Week 2023, Starmer described Labour’s commitment to seeking an “open-handed, respectful...and aspirational relationship,” adding that despite “the shadows of the past,” a future Labour government would be enthusiastic about the “next chapter of the journey that [the two countries] could take together.” Expressing the desire for a relationship based on more than just trade, Starmer tweeted that a “strategic relationship” with India, one which had the potential to respond to the challenges of “economic, climate, and global security,” would be “key to [his] Labour government.”
Irrespective of which party comes to power in the upcoming UK elections, there is reason to be hopeful about bilateral relations. India-UK ties benefit from the massive economic potential that India presents to a struggling, post-Brexit UK; there is bipartisan desire to harness it. India-UK ties are not merely a function of those in power: relations also flourish on a people-to-people level, bolstered by a vibrant living bridge. There is cause to be optimistic that India-UK ties will remain strong and, indeed, even expand under Labour.
Gayatri Ghosh is a commentator on India's foreign relations
