Britain's opposition Labour Party has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cancel his visit to India, starting next Sunday. 

The calls came in the wake of growing concerns of a new variant of Covid-19 detected in India.

“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.

Also, a cabinet minister was forced to deny claims that India has been left off the coronavirus red list because the UK government does not want to jeopardise trade talks with Delhi.

Environment Secretary George Eustice backed the trip, defying Labour demands for it to be scrapped.

“I think it is important that the business of politics does continue and doesn't stop completely – we just need to make sure we take the right precautions,” he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

“Public health does come first but that doesn’t mean there should be no visits at all for business purposes," he added. 

The trip has already been delayed once and has now been scaled back to just one day of meetings.

The opposition had expressed concern, saying it is extraordinary it has not been put on the red list for travel with India’s Covid-19 cases at more than 200,000 a day, and worries about a new strain there.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/india-not-left-covid-19-23935600