Keir Starmer Promises Reset of India Ties, Changes Labour Party’s Stance on Kashmir
The soon-to-be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, has promised to fix the tumultuous relationship between the Labour Party and India. Starmer has accepted that the party failed in its strategy towards relations with India, the largest democracy of the world. In a UK-India Week conference, Starmer admitted that India is an ‘amazing, potent, significant nation’ and pledged to help with the right relationship in the future. This change of approach follows the Labour Party under the then leader Jeremy Corbyn moved an emergency motion in 2019 calling for the dispatch of international observers into Kashmir and demanding the people of the territory exercise their right to self-determination. Starmer tensed the situation and said that Kashmir is India’s internal affair and it will be resolved between India and Pakistan only. He also promised to work towards a ‘new strategic partnership’ with India, with focus on the trade treaty.
Starmer’s overtures are not baseless, as there are 1. There are now around 9 million people of Indian origin living in the UK, making up over 2. Point five percent of the overall population. The British Indian community, which had traditionally voted for the Labour Party, defected to the Conservatives for a number of reasons, including disillusionment with the party’s political stance on Indian domestic politics. Currently, the UK’s Labour Party, under the leadership of Starmer, is sure that it is free from members with radical ideologies.
The party’s chair and shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, Anneliese Dodds, asserted this at a Political Hustings’ event for Britain’s South Asian audience. This is because after a landslide victory in the 2024 UK general elections, the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer formed the next government with a working majority of around 160 seats in the House of Commons. Starmer vowed to start a period of “national renewal” in the UK, emphasizing that the change begins with the people’s democracy, community, and future.
