 "Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman & more: Meet the Indian-origin MPs elected to UK Parliament")
The United Kingdom (UK) elections are over. Britain has elected a new government, ousting Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party from power after 14 years.
The Labour Party led by Keir Starmer has formed the new government. The new prime minister has appointed his Cabinet, which includes a record 11 women MPs out of the total 22 ministers. Lisa Nandy, an Indian-origin MP has also made it to Starmer’s Cabinet as the Culture Secretary. She was re-elected from Wigan with 19,401 votes.
At 28, Britons have elected a record number of people of Indian origin to the UK Parliament. Let’s take a look at who they are.
Tory British Indians in UK Parliament
Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak lost the general elections for his party. But he will be returning to the 650-member House of Commons. Sunak has retained his Richmond and Northallerton seat with 23,059 votes. He was the first Asian and Hindu prime minister of the UK.
The Tories under Sunak managed to win just over 120 seats, while the Labour registered a spectacular victory with 412 seats in the polls.
“On this difficult night, I would like to express my gratitude to the people of the Richmond and Northallerton constituency for your continued support. Since I moved here a decade ago, you have made me and my family feel so at home and I look forward to serving you for years to come,” Sunak said in his speech on Friday (July 5).
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBesides Sunak, former home secretary Suella Braverman will also be returning to the House of Commons. She won Fareham and Waterlooville with 17,561 seats, trouncing Labour’s Gemma Furnivall.
Braverman, who has a Goan-origin father and Tamil-origin mother, was sacked by Sunak late last year after her comments about the police’s handling of a pro-Palestine march. She is seen as one of the contenders vying to replace him as the Conservative Party leader.
Priti Patel, who served as the home secretary between July 2019 and September 2022, has also held on to her Witham seat. The Gujarati-origin politician has represented the constituency as an MP since 2010.
Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero under the Sunak government, has also kept her East Surrey seat. She defeated Labour’s Tom Bowell by a margin of over 7,000 votes. Coutinho’s parents are of Goan Christian descent.
Gagan Mohindra, who was born into a Punjabi Hindu family, has retained his South West Hertfordshire seat with 16,458 votes. His closest rival, Sally Symington of the Liberal Democrat party, won 12,002 votes.
Shivani Raja emerged victorious from Leicester East with 14,526 votes, defeating fellow Indian-origin Labour candidate Rajesh Agrawal. She won the seat against heavyweights like former MP Keith Vaz and Claudia Webbe.
The big Tory losses include Shailesh Vara, who contested from the North West Cambridgeshire seat, and Ameet Jogia, who lost the Conservative-held Hendon seat to Labour.
Sikh MPs in the UK Parliament
According to Indian Express, of the 28 people of Indian origin who will be sitting in the UK Parliament, 12 are from the Sikh community, including six women. All these Sikh MPs are from the Labour Party.
With 12 Sikh lawmakers, the UK is only behind Canada which has 18 MPs from the Sikh community, the newspaper noted.
Preet Kaur Gill trounced Tory candidate Ashvir Sangha to win the Birmingham Edgbaston seat by a margin of more than 8,000 votes. Gill and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, who have been vocal in the UK parliament over Sikh and other issues, were elected as MPs for the third time.
Labour’s Dhesi won the Slough seat with 14,666 votes. After his victory, he wrote on X, “Huge honour to be re-elected by the good people of #Slough as their MP. They voted for change, unity and progress under a @UKLabour Government – which is what I will work hard to deliver for them. Immensely grateful to all whose efforts and teamwork made it possible”.
Nadia Whittome, a queer Catholic Sikh from the Labour Party, won from Nottingham East for a second term with 19,494 votes. Rosemary Palmer of the Green Party stood second with 4,332 votes. Whittome became the youngest MP in the House of Commons when she was first elected in 2019 at the age of 23.
Kirith Entwistle, also known as Kirith Ahluwalia, won the Bolton North East seat with 16,166 votes, becoming the first woman MP to represent the constituency.
Satvir Kaur won the Southampton Test seat with 15,945 votes, Warinder Juss bagged the Wolverhampton West seat, Dr Jeevun Sandher has become the MP from Loughborough and Jas Athwal from Ilford South. Gurinder Singh Josan has become a first-time MP from Smethwick.
Harpreet Kaur Uppal has become a first-time MP after clinching the Huddersfield parliamentary seat with 15,101 votes.
Other MPs of Indian-origin
Labour veteran Seema Malhotra held the Feltham and Heston seat with 16,139 votes against Tory leader Reva Gudi. She served as the Shadow Minister for Skills and Further Education last year. Malhotra, who is the co-founder and President of the Fabian Women’s Network, has won from Feltham and Heston four times now.
Thankyou to the people of Feltham and Heston for re-electing me as the MP for Feltham and Heston. 🙏🏼
— Seema Malhotra MP (@SeemaMalhotra1) July 5, 2024
Tonight’s was a vote for hope, optimism and renewal. I’m grateful to all who played a part in our positive campaign for change and for unity.
It will be an honour and a… pic.twitter.com/zwiC9jtxfh
Labour’s Kanishka Narayan has become the first ethnic minority MP in Wales. He defeated former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns from the Vale of Glamorgan.
Sojan Joseph, who has roots in Kerala, has been elected as a Labour candidate from the Conservative stronghold of Ashford.
Dudley elected its first woman MP in Labour’s Sonia Kumar, who won by a margin of 1,900 votes against Conservative candidate Marco Longhi.
Goan-origin Valerie Vaz of the Labour Party has won Walsall and Bloxwich, defeating her closest opponent Aftab Nawaz, an Independent candidate. Her brother is Keith Vaz.
Labour’s Navendu Mishra won with a big margin of over 15,000 votes against Reform UK’s Lynn Schofield from Stockport.
With inputs from agencies
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