Spotlight on Indian visas in race to replace Rishi Sunak as UK Opposition Leader

London: The two frontrunners in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader and take his place in the House of Commons as Leader of the Opposition have thrown the spotlight on cutting immigration into the UK, with visas for Indians being singled out in heated debates.

Against the backdrop of the launch of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on Sunday, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick singled out India as one of the countries that should be subjected to tough visa restrictions across all categories unless it takes back its nationals who enter Britain illegally.

His closest contender, shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch, has also zeroed in on the same issue and condemned new migrants bringing their disputes from India to cause unrest on the streets of the country.

"It is quite clear that there are many people who have recently come to this country who have brought views from their countries of origin that have no place here,” Badenoch told the BBC.

"I saw as equalities minister people bringing cultural disputes from India to the streets of Leicester… we need to make sure that when people come to this country, they leave their previous differences behind. This is not a controversial thing to say,” she said.

Nigerian-heritage Badenoch, considered among the favourites to win the ongoing Tory leadership election, was apparently referencing the clashes that broke out in Leicester in September 2022 in the wake of an India-Pakistan Asia Cup cricket match.

Meanwhile, her former ministerial colleague Robert Jenrick who has notched up an early lead in the contest told ‘The Daily Telegraph’ earlier this week that while India benefited from 250,000 visas in the past year, there were as many as 100,000 Indian nationals estimated to be illegally residing in the UK.

He lamented that deportations or removals to India remain stuck in the hundreds despite an India-UK Migration and Mobility Partnership which is designed to cover such returns of illegal migrants.

"The government must stop other countries exploiting our generosity by imposing severe visa restrictions and restricting foreign aid to countries that do not take back their nationals here illegally,” said Jenrick.

Over the four-day Tory conference starting on Sunday, Jenrick and Badenoch will go head-to-head with two other party colleagues – former Cabinet ministers James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat – as they make their leadership pitches before MPs vote in the next round. This time the field will be whittled down to the final two candidates who will then fight it out for the online ballot of the wider Conservative Party membership, many of whom will be making up their minds during the party conference. The new Conservative Party chief and Opposition Leader is then scheduled to be declared on November 2 after the voting closes.

The election follows the resignation of Sunak as Tory leader in the wake of the party’s bruising general election defeat in July under his leadership. The British Indian politician, who was re-elected member of Parliament from Richmond and Northallerton in northern England, has meanwhile been serving as interim leader until his successor is elected.