The brutal truth is that Britain needs a trade deal much more than India does

Editorial: Boris Johnson, clowning aside, needed to be on his best behaviour with his hosts

Away from the buffoonery, though, there was important work to do, and some of it got done (Reuters)

The “optics” of the prime minister’s visit to India were not good. The ritual welcomes made Boris Johnson look like a hapless, bumbling tourist. They only served to remind his critics back home that his willingness to appear gurning away in a “funny” photograph far exceeds his ability to tell the truth about darker matters.

As ever, his play-acting amounted to a mild satire on the culture of the host nation. His closing press conference – handled alone because Narendra Modi dislikes unscripted, spontaneous appearances before the media – wasn’t a rip-roaring success, either. Dominated by questions about his own future, he looked shifty and on edge, as well he might when even his own MPs want him investigated for lying to parliament.

Away from the buffoonery, though, there was important work to do, and some of it got done. The prime minister tried to persuade the Indian prime minister to loosen his country’s economic and security ties with Russia, and persuade Vladimir Putin to end his cruel and illegal war in Ukraine.