COURTESY: TIMESOFINDIA
The House of Commons will see a record 29 Indian-origin members take their seats after the Labour landslide in the 2024 general election. Labour has the most PIO MPs, 19, of which 12 are first-timers
Labour
Preet Kaur Gill, who retained Birmingham Edgbaston, was born in Birmingham to Indian parents; her father was president of Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Smethwick, the UK’s first gurdwara.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi retains Slougha
Seema Malhotra retains Feltham and Heston
Goan-origin Valerie Vaz, sister of Keith Vaz, wins Walsall and Bloxwich
Lisa Nandy retains Wigan.
Navendu Mishra retains Stockport
Nadia Whittome retains Nottingham East.
Labour newcomers
Baggy Shanker, a Sikh, won Derby South, a seat that has been Labour since its formation. Born and raised in the UK, his father came to the UK in the 1950s and worked in a foundry. He works for Rolls-Royce. He is also a Labour councillor and had been Labour leader of Derby City Council until June 18 when he was ousted after a vote of no confidence by opposition councillors.
Gurinder Singh Josan won the safe seat of Smethwick. Aged 51, he was appointed a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours, “for political service”. He used to be a trustee of Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Smethwick, where Avtar Singh’s funeral took place last year.
Harpreet Uppal, a British Sikh, won Huddersfield, becoming the constituency’s first female MP. Uppal was born and raised in Fartown and is the daughter of textile worker Lamber Singh Uppal and his wife Satvinder. Her father came to the UK from India in 1962.
Jas Athwal, aged 60, won Ilford South, a safe Labour seat. Athwal was born in Punjab into a Punjabi Jat Sikh family. He lived there until his family relocated to Ilford when he was seven years old.
Dr Jeevun Sandher, 33, won Loughborough for Labour, seizing it from the Conservatives. He was born in the UK and his family is from near Jalandhar, Punjab. Sandher, a British Sikh, leads the economics team at think tank the New Economics Foundation. He previously worked at the Treasury and prior to that was an economist at the Somaliland Ministry of Finance where he co-wrote their national development plan and budgets.
Kanishka Narayan (34) won Vale of Glamorgan, seizing it from the Conservatives and becoming the first ethnic minority MP elected to represent a Welsh constituency at Westminster. He was born in Bihar and moved to Wales aged 12. Studied at Oxford and Stanford. He was senior adviser at the Cabinet Office and expert adviser to the environment secretary. He is a technology consultant who has invested in climate and fintech start-ups.
Another Labour gain from the Conservatives was Bolton North east won by Kirith Entwistle. The 33-year-old British Punjabi was born in Southall. Her India-born maternal grandparents moved to the UK from Kenya in the 1970s. Her father moved to the UK from Delhi in the 1980s.
Another British Sikh, Satvir Kaur, won Southampton Test, a Labour hold. She is a councillor and former Labour leader of Southampton City Council when she was the first ethnic minority member to lead it.
Warinder Juss, also Sikh, helped Labour seize Wolverhampton West from the Conservatives.
British Parliament also got its first Keralite MP with Kottayam native Sojan Joseh (49) gaining the Labour seat of Ashford from the Conservatives. From Kaippuzha in Kottayam, he moved to the UK to work as an NHS nurse 22 years ago and later became a Labour councillor.
Sonia Kumar, a PIO Sikh, gained the Labour seat of Dudley from the Conservatives, beating her Conservative opponent Marco Longhi who had written letters to British Pakistani constituents questioning whether she would represent Kashmir in parliament and underlining her name.
Sureena Brackenbridge won Wolverhampton North East
Tory newcomers
Outgoing PM Rishi Sunak retains Richmond and Northallerton
Former home secretary Suella Braverman wins Fareham and Waterlooville
Former home secretary Priti Patel retains Witham
Former minister Claire Coutinho retains East Surrey
Gagan Mohindra retains South West Hertfordshire
Shivani Raja wins Leicester East
Barrister and doctor Neil Shastri-Hurst won Solihull and Shirley, holding on to the Conservative seat. Born and raised in the UK; his father was born in Vadodara and emigrated in the 1970s where he met his wife, who is British. He joined the British Army as a medical officer. Since 2018, Shastri-Hurst (40) has practised as a barrister.
Lib dems
Munira Wilson retains Twickenham
Independents
Iqbal Mohamed, whose parents arrived in the UK from India in the 1960s, gained Dewsbury and Batley
Shockat Adam, Leicester South. His parents arrived in the UK from Malawi when he was three.
