With 12 Sikh MPs, UK is now second only to Canada, which is home to a sizeable Punjabi diaspora, and has 18 Sikh MPs.
A record 28 persons of Indian origin were elected to the UK Parliament Friday, with several Conservatives surviving a largely brutal outcome for their party.
Of the 28, a record 12 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 who have been elected for the third straight time, and one who 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 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 MP from Bolton North East. Sonia Kumar too became the first woman MP from the Dudley parliamentary seat. Similarly, Harpreet Kaur Uppal won the Huddersfield parliamentary seat to enter the Parliament for the first time.
With 12 Sikh MPs, UK is now second only to Canada, which is home to a sizeable Punjabi diaspora, and has 18 Sikh MPs.
Outgoing prime minister Rishi Sunak leads the Tory charge of British Indians holding on to their seats, with a decisive win in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency in Yorkshire. Other prominent British Indian Tories holding on to their seats included former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, and Sunak’s Goan-origin Cabinet ally Claire Coutinho.
Gagan Mohindra held on to his South West 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 Agrawal.