Bid to increase Indian-origin MPs’ numbers may not work

LONDON:All three main parties in Britain have fielded Indian-origin candidates but there is some concern the number of MPs from the community may not increase substantially from the 10 in the last Parliament, mainly because most of them have not been fielded in party strongholds.

Indian-origin candidates were among the first non-whites elected in Britain’s parliamentary history — Dadabhai Naoroji from Finsbury Central in 1892, followed by Mancherjee Bhownagree (1895) and Shapurji Saklatvala (1922).

But it was only after 1987 that Parliament saw more non-whites being elected. Their number spiked from the 2010 election — from 15 to 27 in 2010 and 41 in 2015. The next Parliament is likely to have more than 40 MPs from minority communities.

The number of Indian-origin candidates has been increasing over the years, though concern remains they are not chosen in retirement seats (constituencies where the party MP is retiring and the next candidate has a strong chance of winning).

On Thursday, Tamanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) and Kuldip Singh Sahota (Telford) are contesting to be the first turbanwearing Sikhs in the House of Commons, while Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham Edgbaston) is hoping to be the first Sikh woman MP.

Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, told HT that voters from the community want to see EU free movement rules change after Brexit, but were worried about the ratcheting up of anti-immigration rhetoric. They also want to see action from all parties on challenging racism and hate crime, he said.

“Progress on Indian and British Asian representation in the House of Commons will be steady rather than spectacular after the surge in ethnic minority MPs in 2010 and 2015,” he said.