Tanmanjeet Singh Deshi (Left), Preet Kaur Gill (Right
A record of 28 persons of Indian origin were elected to the UK Parliament on July 5, 2024 with several conservatives surviving a largely brutal outcome for their party. Of the 28, a record twelve members from the Sikh community, including six women were elected to the House of Commons.
All the Sikh MPs belong to the Labour Party. They include nine first timers, two of whom have been elected for the third straight time and one made it to the House of Commons for the second time. British Sikh MPs Preet Kaur Gill, who defeated Tory first timer, Ashvir Sangha and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi won their seats for the Labour in Birmingham Edgbaston and Slough respectively for the third time.
Nadia Whittome, who identifies as queer and a Catholic Sikh won from Nottingham East for the second consecutive time. At the age of 23 Whittome was the youngest MP in the House of Commons when she was first elected in 2019. Kirith Entwistle, also known as Kirith Ahluwalia became the first woman to be elected from Bolton Northeast. Sonia Kumar too became the first woman MP from Dudly Parliamentary seat.
Similarly, Harpreet Kaur Uppal won the Huddersfield parliamentary seat to enter the Parliament for the first time. With 12 Sikh MPs, the UK is now second only to Canada, which is home to a sizeable Punjabi diaspora and has 18 Sikh MPs.
Outgoing PM Rishi Sunak leads the tory charge of British Indians holding onto their seats with a decisive win in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency in Yorkshire. Other prominent Tories holding onto their seats included former Home Secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel and Sunak’s Goan origin Cabinet Ally Claire Coutinho.
Gogan Mahindra held on to his Southwest Hertfordshire seat for the conservatives with Shivani Raja registering a gain for the party in the keenly watched constituency of Leicester East where she was contesting against fellow Indian origin Labour candidate Rajesh Agarwal. They had both canvassed around the topic of saving the city’s, famous Diwali lights from being switched off over council budget cuts as did former MP Keith Vaz who was contesting as independent. Vaz lost.
Among the biggest losses on the Tory side included Shailesh Vara, who narrowly lost his seat Northwest Cambridgeshire to the Labour and first time Ameet Jogia who also lost his Tory held Hendon seat in London to Labour. Reflective of the overall tally, it was the Labour Party that had the highest number of winning Indian diaspora candidates, starting with party veterans such as Seema Malhotra. Goan-origin Valerie Vaz, sister of Keith Vaz, won in Walsall and Bloxwich, as did Lisa Nandy in Wigan.
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