Congress president Rahul Gandhi arrived in London on Friday on his first official visit to the UK as party president. During his two-day visit, he is set for a series of meetings, including an interaction with parliamentarians in the House of Commons complex and a diaspora event.

Here are updates:

At U.K. Parliament

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is the first foreign opposition leader to be invited to be speak at the Grand Committee Room of the UK Parliament , other prominent speakers who have spoken here are the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, according to Congress party.

"The Congress has to transform itself by pulling younger leaders in and this is happening,'' Mr. Gandhi says and points to involvement of women in party work.

He attacks Swacch Bharat campaign and accuses it of having condescending top down appeal.

People understand what is best for them... government is about empowering India.. and this should start with decentralisation, he says.

India’s strength is its diversity but today they are not allowing India to express itself, Mr. Gandhi says attacking the ruling party.

On his yesterday's photo turning memes, Mr. Gandhi uses it to attack the BJP. He says he was looking around wondering about the Rafale deal. "How did this happen, who benefited from this and why," he says.

In IISS

Rahul Gandhi kicked off his first official visit to the UK since taking over as president of Congress with an address focused on his foreign policy vision of India at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, which earlier this year played host to the Prime Minister’s speech on Indo-Pacific policy.

During the speech the Congress President called for a re-evaluation of India’s approach to China, as the country sought to strike a balance between China, the West and Africa. “We can’t ignore the fact that China is our neighbour,” he said. “The opportunity is there is an Indian way of doing things that is completely different to the Chinese way or the America way…we have our own ideas that are old, tested by non -violence and listening…we specialise in reducing confrontation,” he said.

He used the opportunity to attack the government’s approach to foreign policy, arguing that it lacked strategic vision, and would fail to gain momentum without unifying the country or solving the job problem. “You can’t run a foreign policy based on hugs,” he said. When “divisions” were created between people “you are reducing India’s power, he said. “You carry all those people together you punch at maximum weight.”

Reiterating his attack on the government’s approach to job creation that he had made in Hamburg earlier in the week, Mr. Gandhi, also attacked demonetisation, arguing it had failed to serve medium sized businesses in the way that would have been needed to revitalise the economy and the formal jobs market.