America
British polls: Number of Indian-origin MPs remains at 10
London, May 8
The number of Indian-origin members in the new
House of Commons following the British general elections held on
Thursday will remain at 10, unchanged from the previous house.
All
sitting MPs were re-elected bar one. Paul Uppal of the Conservative
party lost in Wolverhampton South West in the West Midlands of England.
He was defeated by Rob Marris of the Labour party by a margin of 801
votes in a constituency with a large presence of Sikhs from India.
Uppal's
loss, though, was compensated by victory for Rishi Sunak, a
Conservative, in Richmond in Yorkshire. This first-time MP was fighting a
seat vacated by William Hague, who until last year was Britain's
foreign minister. Sunak is a son-in-law of N.R. Narayana Murthy, one of
the founders of the Indian software giant Infosys.
Those who
retained their seats are: Keith Vaz (Leicester East), who has been an MP
from 1987; his sister Valerie Vaz (Walsall South); Virendra Sharma
(Ealing Southall); Seema Malhotra (Feltham & Heston); Lisa Nandy
(Wigan), who is half Indian-half English; Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove), who
is half Indian-half Pakistani and was minister for culture, media and
sport in the outgoing cabinet; Priti Patel (Witham), who was a junior
minister; Alok Sharma (Reading West); and Shailesh Vara (Cambridgeshire
North West), another junior minister who has been an MP since 2005.
“I
fought a positive campaign, based on what I have achieved for the
constituency and what the Conservatives have achieved in government,â€
Vara said.
"I am absolutely delighted. I have served them for 27
years and they have given me the huge privilege of an extension of
another five," remarked Keith Vaz.