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

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who met Indian PM 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, the spokesman said: “Yes, we are working on this high ambition free trade deal that would put the UK at the front of the queue to supply India’s growing middle class.”