Record number of PIO MPs elected to UK parliament
10 May 2015 4:30 AM IST
A record number of 10 Indian-origin candidates including Keith Vaz, Priti Patel and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s son-in-law were on Friday elected to the British Parliament.
Prominent Labour candidates like long-serving MPs Keith Vaz (Leicester East) and Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) have won their respective seats, as they have a special connect with a largely Indian-origin electorate in their constituencies.
Ruling Conservatives’ Indian-origin stalwart, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Indian Diaspora champion Priti Patel also retained her Witham seat with a 41.5 per cent majority, winning 27,123 seats. Opposition Labour’s Valerie Vaz also retained her Walsall South seat and Seema Malhotra won a her south west London seat comfortably.
The Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s son-in-law Rishi Sunak, was contesting from the Tory safe seat of Richmond (Yorks) in the north of England and bagged 27,744 votes.
With his nearest opponent, Matthew Cooke of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), at a mere 8,194, his win marks an impressive 51.4 per cent majority to become a first-time MP in the House of Commons.
“I grew up watching my parents serve our local community with dedication. My dad is a NHS (National Health Service) family GP and my mum ran her own local chemist shop,” Sunak said.
Other Indian-origin winners include Alok Sharma (Reading West), Shailesh Vara (Cambridgeshire North West), another junior minister who has been an MP since 2005. First-timer Suella Fernandes (Fareham) for the Conservatives and a Labour novice Lisa Nandy (Wigan).
The overall tally of 10 Indian-origin MPs in the British Parliament breaks the previous 2010 general election record of eight. But it was not all smooth sailing for Indian-origin Tory candidates, with Paul Uppal losing by a narrow margin to Labour.
In the same Wolverhampton region, brother-sister duo Arun and Suria Photay also failed to make their first-time mark.
There were a total of 59 Indian-origin candidates in the fray from the Tories (17), Labour (14), Liberal Democrats (14), Green Party (4), United Kingdom Independence Party- UKIP (3), Independents (2) and one each from the smaller parties like All People’s Party, Christian Movement for Great Britain, National Liberal Party, Socialist Labour Party and Young People’s Party.
3 UK leaders quit in 52 minutes
Britain has been left reeling as three top party leaders, including Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage resigned barely hours after their parties were routed in today’s general election.
First to quit was Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party who resigned after he failed to win the coastal Kent constituency of South Thanet from the Conservatives.
Farage finished in second place behind Tory candidate Craig MacKinlay in what had been Ukip’s key target seat.
“I have just resigned as leader of Ukip. I have kept my promise. I have honoured what I said. I shall write to the NEC (National Executive Committee),” Farage said.
Then it was Nick Clegg who resigned as Liberal Democrat leader after his party was routed at the general election.
The outgoing deputy prime minister though retained his Sheffield, Hallam seart, warned that the politics of “fear and grievance” had won while liberalism had lost.
Last was, Ed Miliband, the prime ministerial candidate from the Labour party.
He stepped down as Labour leader saying he is truly sorry for the scale of the party’s crushing defeat.
20-year-old youngest MP in 300 years
A 20-year-old student representing the Scottish National Party has become Britain’s youngest member of parliament in over 300 years after defeating Labour’s shadow foreign secretary. Mhairi Black defeated Douglas Alexander, 47, in Paisley and Renfrewshire South by over 6,000 votes.
Alexander is Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman and campaign chief. Black will be the youngest MP when she takes her seat in the House of Commons later this month after 13-year-old Christopher Monckton who won in 1667.
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