Steel on the menu at lunch with India’s PM
THE Duke of Cambridge has intervened in the row over Tata Steel’s closure of its UK plants by raising the controversy with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Duke visited Mr Modi in New Delhi, where he had been briefed by Whitehall departments to discuss Tata’s decision to pull out of Britain, putting 40,000 jobs under threat.
He is the second member of the Royal family to be deployed on behalf of the British steel industry. The Duke of York discussed China’s steel policy with President Xi Jinping on a visit to Beijing earlier this month.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined Mr Modi for lunch at Hyderabad House, a former residence of maharajas. A royal source said that during an informal lunch meeting, “the pressures facing steel manufacturers in the UK and India were discussed”.
The lunch was described as “friendly and informative”. Sources said the Duke would not have brought up such a sensitive subject without being asked to do so by the Government.
He is likely to have been briefed by the Foreign Office and the Department for Business.
Mr Modi invited officials, business and cultural leaders, and senior Indian government figures to the lunch.
Other topics discussed included the strength of the relationship between the UK and India in defence and security, mental health, and conservation.
A suspected female jihadist is being hunted in India amid fears that she could be planning an attack to overshadow the royal visit.