Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Labour joins calls for Johnson to cancel India visit over new Covid variant

Labour joins calls for Johnson to cancel India visit over new Covid variant

The Labour Party on Sunday joined calls for prime minister Boris Johnson to cancel his visit to India, starting next Sunday, amid growing concerns of a new variant of COVID-19 detected in the country.

Public Health England (PHE) has said that 77 cases of the so-called “double mutant” Indian variant have been detected in the UK since last month and that it has now been classed as a Variant Under Investigation (VUI).


Downing Street had earlier confirmed a much shorter schedule for the UK prime minister's visit, with the bulk of the programme including talks with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi set for a day-long agenda on Monday, April 26.

“I can't see why the prime minister can't conduct his business with the Indian government via Zoom,” said Labour’s shadow communities secretary Steve Reed.

“The prime minister, like all of us in public life, needs to try and set an example. I'd much rather the prime minister did it by Zoom rather than travelling to India," he told Sky News, when asked if the visit should go ahead next week.

A government minister, meanwhile, stressed that there is no evidence the Indian variant can evade vaccine protection or that it is more contagious.

"I'm told there is no evidence at the moment this particular variant is able to get around the vaccine or...that it is necessarily more contagious than the others – but we are looking at it, it will be studied," said environment secretary George Eustice.

The variant – officially named B.1.617 – is believed to be almost certainly playing a part in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India and a major spike in infection rates. It has sparked concerns among academics and sections of the UK media, who have called for India to be added to the “red list”, which involves stricter travel restrictions with a compulsory 10-day hotel quarantine for anyone returning to the UK from such countries.

Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, is among those who said that he finds it “mystifying” and “slightly confounding” that India is not yet on the red list and that those flying into the UK from there are not subjected to the compulsory hotel quarantine.

“I think we should be terribly concerned about it,” Prof Altmann told the BBC.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that India has been kept off the red list to allow Johnson's visit to go ahead, even though cut short, and to ensure that India-UK trade negotiations are on track ahead of India’s negotiations with the European Union (EU).

Downing Street has said that designations under the red list, which currently covers around 40 countries, are kept “under constant review” and so far the message is that the visit will go ahead in its shortened version.

"As with all the prime minister’s visits, his trip to India will prioritise the safety of those involved. All elements of the visit will be Covid secure,” the prime minister's spokesperson said.

A lot is riding on the visit, previously postponed from a Republic Day tour in January, as the first major bilateral visit for Johnson outside Europe since the UK general election in December 2019 and the conclusion of the Brexit transition period at the end of December 2020. The priority is for both sides to agree to a ‘Roadmap 2030’, a plan for the next decade to pave the way to a free trade agreement (FTA) in future.

More For You

King Charles

King Charles, wearing a black armband to pay respects to the victims of Air India plane crash, attends the Trooping the Colour parade on his official birthday in London. (Photo: Reuters)

Air India crash: Victims remembered during King Charles's birthday parade

A MINUTE's silence for the victims of the Air India plane crash was observed on Saturday during the Trooping the Colour parade in London marking King Charles's official birthday. Some members of the royal family wore black armbands during the ceremony.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles, 76, had requested changes to the parade “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy”.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rochdale grooming case

They were all remanded in custody, except Bashir, who absconded before the trial began. (Photo: Greater Manchester Police)

Seven men convicted of raping 13-year-old girls in Rochdale grooming case

SEVEN men were convicted on Friday in the UK’s latest grooming trial, after a jury heard that two girl victims were forced to have sex “with multiple men on the same day, in filthy flats and on rancid mattresses”.

Jurors at the court in Manchester, northwest England, deliberated for three weeks before finding the seven men, all of whom are of South Asian descent, guilty of rape.

Keep ReadingShow less
karan-thakar

Karun Thakar is a leading textile collector with a lifelong focus on Asian and African textiles

Karun Collection

Karun Thakar Fund to support textile research with scholarships and grants

THE KARUN THAKAR FUND, established by textile collector Karun Thakar in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), supports the study of Asian and African textiles and dress through scholarships and project grants.

The fund offers one-time Scholarship Awards of up to £10,000 for university students worldwide focusing on any aspect of Asian or African textiles and dress. Undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students from any accredited university are eligible, provided their research or practice is clearly linked to these areas. The next round of Scholarship Award applications opens on 1 May 2025 and closes at 23:59 on July 15, 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less
Air India

A view shows the wreckage of the tail section of an Air India aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from airport in Ahmedabad. (Photo: Reuters)

Air India crash: Probe focuses on engine and flaps; safety checks ordered for 787 fleet

THE INVESTIGATION into the Air India crash that killed more than 240 people is focusing on the aircraft's engine, flaps, and landing gear.

The Indian aviation regulator has ordered safety checks on the airline’s entire Boeing 787 fleet, reported Reuters.

Keep ReadingShow less