London, June 10: Britain on Friday got its first female Sikh MP and first turbaned MPs as the UK general election results threw up a small increase in the number of Indian-origin MPs in the House of Commons.
The latest tally indicates the Labour Party has improved its record from five to seven MPs, with the Tories retaining their five Indian-origin MPs, taking the total number up from 10 in the 2015 general election to 12.
Labour’s Preet Kaur Gill won her Birmingham Edgbaston seat by polling 24,124 votes, defeating her Conservative Party rival by 6,917 votes.
“I am delighted I have been given the opportunity to become the next MP for Edgbaston where I was born and raised. I want to engage with the people of Edgbaston and with hard work, passion and determination I think we can achieve great things together,” she said.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, known as Tan, won his Slough seat decisively, polling 34,170 votes, to become Labour’s first turban-wearing MP. He defeated his Conservative rival by a whopping 16,998 votes. He said he was “humbled” and wanted to serve the town where he was born and raised.
“Credit to the Labour Party leadership for taking the bold step of giving Sikhs the opportunity to fight for winnable seats. Labour now needs to turn its attention to having visible Sikh representation in the House of Lords so Sikhs are better represented and can bring fresh thinking and ideas,” Sikh Federation UK said in a statement.
A second turban-wearing Sikh, Labour’s Kuldip Sahota, lost out narrowly to his Conservative rival by just 720 votes. Among some of the other Indian-origin contestant results, Conservative’s Priti Patel held on to her stronghold of Witham in Essex with a solid majority of 18,646, Alok Sharma held on to Reading West by 2,876 votes and Shailesh Vara won in Cambridgeshire North West by 18,008 votes.
The 2015 general election first-timers for the Tories, Rishi Sunak and Suella Fernandes, have also held on to their seats decisively with a margin of 23,108 and 21,555 votes, respectively.
For the Labour Party, the longest serving Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz held on to his Leicester East seat and his sister Valerie Vaz also won to hold on to her Walsall South seat. Lisa Nandy won in Wigan for Labour, Seema Malhotra held on to Feltham & Heston and Virendra Sharma polled 31,720 in his safe seat of Ealing Southall.
Among some prominent losses, Labour’s Dr Neeraj Patil, the ex-Mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth, lost to Justine Greening, the UK’s education minister. Paul Uppal, who was expected to regain Wolverhampton South West for the Tories, also lost out to his Labour rival. Other Tory Indian-origin hopefuls — Rahoul Bhansali, Samir Jassal, Ameet Jogia, Resham Kotecha, Reena Ranger, Meera Sonecha and Minesh Talati — all lost out to Labour.
News source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
