Pak-origin British MPs steal a march on Indians

ASHIS RAY

Senior journalist and author

The first Indian to enter Britain’s directly elected and key chamber of parliament, the House of Commons, was Dadabhai Naoroji, a Liberal Party candidate who was elected in 1892 from London’s then Finsbury Central constituency and remained an MP until 1895. The second was a Conservative, Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree, who won from Bethnal Green North East, also in London, in 1895, and served up to 1906.

The third was the intriguingly radical Shapurji Saklatvala. He stood for election in the 1922 General Election on behalf of the Communist Party of the Great Britain and triumphed from Battersea North in the British capital. He, however, lost his seat in a mid-term poll the following year, only to be returned to the Commons in 1924 for a full five-year term. Shapurji’s cousin Nowroji Saklatvala was the third chairman of the Tata Group. The former, too, worked with the Tatas before emigrating to England.

Fifty-eight years elapsed before another politician of Indian origin entered the Commons. Keith Vaz, of Goan descent, was successful for Labour from Leicester East in 1987 and uninterruptedly represented this constituency for 32 years — thereby enjoying the longest innings any British MP of Indian extraction has experienced — until he stood down for the upcoming election, following alleged indiscretions. Vaz was also the first British Indian minister of state in the UK’s government in the modern era.

Previously, Lord Satyendra Sinha of Raipur in West Bengal, the first Indian hereditary peer, was appointed as parliamentary under-secretary of state for India — or a junior minister — in 1919.

Vaz, who nursed his constituency into making it absolutely safe for Labour, has been replaced by Claudia Webbe, a non-Asian, who is pitted against Bhupen Dave, a British Gujarati, in a Gujarati-dominated seat. It’s a test case in the avowed campaign of the Overseas Friends of the BJP against the Labour because of the latter’s perceived anti-India and pro-Pakistan policy on J-K.

Those who followed in Vaz’s footsteps include Ashok Kumar (Labour, Langbaurgh, Middlesborough South and East Cleveland), Piara Singh Khabra (Labour, Ealing Southall), Marsha Singh (Labour, Bradford West); and Parmjit Dhanda (Labour, Gloucester), Parmjit Gill (Liberal Democrat, Leicester South) and Paul Uppal (Conservative, Wolverhampton South-West), who subsequently lost.

The maternal grandfather of Sebastian Coe, a double Olympic gold medallist, was Indian. The middle distance runner was elected in 1992 from Falmouth and Camborne as a Conservative, before losing in 1997. He is now a life peer. Lord Coe spearheaded London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and realised this dream, before doing a splendid job as chairman of the organising committee of the Olympiad. He is presently president of the International Amateur Athletics Federation.

Others of Indian descent who featured in the outgoing House and may figure again are Shailesh Vara (Conservative, North West Cambridgeshire), Virendra Sharma (Labour, Ealing Southall), Lisa Nandy — whose father was Indian — (Labour, Wigan), Priti Patel — now dizzyingly Home Secretary — (Conservative, Witham), Alok Sharma — secretary of state for international development — (Conservative, Reading West), Valerie Vaz — shadow leader of the Commons and sister of Keith — (Labour, Walsall South), Seema Malhotra (Labour, Feltham and Heston), Rishi Sunak — chief secretary to the treasury, which often entitles sitting in cabinet — (Conservative, Richmond Yorkshire), Suella Braverman (Conservative, Fareham), Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi (Labour, Slough), the first turbaned Sikh in the House, and Preet Kaur Gill — the first Sikh woman to crack the glass ceiling — (Labour, Birmingham, Edgbaston).

The bottom line, though, is that Indian origin people have punched below their weight in terms of the contingent of MPs representing them. They are about 3.5 per cent of the population, but in the last Commons, occupied only around two per cent of seats. However, there is a prospect of the tally increasing in the next House.

Sajid Javid (Conservative, Bromsgrove), Chancellor of the Exchequer, once remarked that his father was an Indian (probably migrated from India to Pakistan after Partition), and his mother Pakistani. In the outgoing House of Commons, the Pakistani background MPs included Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour, Tooting), who replaced Sadiq Khan after he became the Mayor of London, Shabana Mahmood (Labour, Birmingham, Ladywood), Khalid Mahmood (Labour, Birmingham, Perry Barr), Yasmin Qureshi (Labour, Bolton South East), Rehman Chishti (Conservative, Gillingham and Rainham), Imran Hussain (Labour, Bradford East), Nusrat Ghani (Conservative, Wealden) Naseem Shah (Labour, Bradford West), Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party, Ochil and South Perthshire), Afzal Khan (Labour, Manchester Gorton), Faizal Rashid (Labour, Warrington South) and Mohammad Yasin (Labour, Bedford).

The first British Pakistani to be elected to the Commons was Mohammad Sarwar from Glasgow Central in 1997. Now, the number of such MPs has drawn level with their British Indian counterparts. This indicates an intense and organised effort to integrate into the UK’s political system. Besides, these lawmakers are educated, relatively young and quite united in standing up for Pakistan’s cause in a matter like Kashmir.

By comparison, the British Indian progress — partly because of the community’s diversity — has been leisurely and uncoordinated; and absent or divided when it comes to voicing India’s vital constitutional interests.

Rushanara Ali (Labour, Bethnal Green and Bow) was the first person of Bangladeshi origin to enter the House in 2010. She was joined by two women — Rupa Huq (Labour, Ealing and Acton) and Tulip Siddiq — a grand-daughter of the founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and a niece of the country’s incumbent PM Sheikh Hasina — (Labour, Hampstead and Kilburn).

Nirj Deva (Conservative, Brentford and Isleworth) was the first of Sri Lankan descent to make it to the Commons in 1992; but lost his seat thereafter. This, though, was compensated by the presence of Ranil Jayawardene (Conservative, North East Hampshire) and Thangam Debbonaire — a Sri Lankan Tamil — in the last parliament.

Therefore, as the British General Election campaign enters the final fortnight, the number of South Asian MPs in the Commons after December 12 could touch 35, with the Indian origin group striving to hit a figure of 15. They could, though, be pipped to the post by their Pakistani counterparts, who have been granted relatively safer seats by both Labour and the Conservatives, especially the former.

As a case in point, Saqib Bhatti, a British Pakistani, has been selected for Meriden in the West Midlands, where Caroline Spelman, the retiring lawmaker, secured 62 per cent of the votes in 2017, whereas Gagan Mohindra, a British Indian standing for the same party in South West Hertforshire, has to cope with a Remainer (in favour of remaining in EU) heavyweight like David Gauke, a former cabinet minister who fell out with Boris Johnson, now Prime Minister, on Brexit and is fighting as an Independent. And in Stockport, where Nav Mishra has been put up by Labour, the popular outgoing Member of Parliament Ann Coffey has urged voters to root for the Liberal Democrat candidate.