Still looking for free trade deal with India by Diwali, says Britain

New Delhi is also seeking to claw back half a billion pounds in payments made by Indian workers toward Britain's social security system as part of the deal

Britain still wants to agree a free trade deal with India by Diwali later this month, Prime Minister Liz Truss's spokesman said on Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who met Indian leader Narendra Modi in April, set an ambitious target to sign the free trade agreement by Diwali, the Indian festival of lights in late October.

Asked if the government still wanted a trade deal by this date, Max Blain, official spokesman for Truss, said the government was still hoping to get a trade deal with India by late October “that would put the UK front of the queue to supply