Why May curried favour as exit looms

TO THE inaugural Indian Awards at a sweltering House of Commons last night, where a roster of senior business types turned out to celebrate Anglo-Indian relations almost a year to the day after the Brexit vote.

Among the winners were JCB, City Hall’s Deputy Mayor for Business Rajesh Agrawal and David Cameron, although Agrawal and the ex-PM could only appear by video (when they had sorted out a few technical hitches). Still, newly minted Foreign Office minister Mark Field said the right things, stressing it was “not by chance” that Theresa May made a visit to India early in her premiership as the country is the third-largest investor in the UK.

Although West Indies fast-bowling legend Courtney Walsh was a noshow, it was more than made up for by a stunning performance by Indian singing star Satinder Sartaaj, who also gave us a sneak preview of his new movie.