In the UK general election, the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer won a landslide victory, defeating the Conservative Party led by current Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Four British Indians also declared victories in the 650-member House of Representatives. Find out who they are here.
Rishi Sunak: Current Chancellor Rishi Sunak retained his seats in the north of England but his Conservative Party conceded defeat in the general election after Labour won comfortably with 378 seats.
“Thank you to the hundreds of Conservative candidates, thousands of volunteers and millions of voters for your work, support and vote,” Mr Sunak wrote on X (formerly Twitter) after his defeat.
Sunak, the UK’s first Asian Prime Minister, held two cabinet roles under Boris Johnson’s government, including Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022. Sunak served as Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorkshire) from 2015 to 2024, and will represent Richmond and Northallerton from 2024 onwards.
Preet Kaur Gill: Mr Gill, a Labour member, was re-elected for Birmingham Edgbaston and was previously shadow minister for primary care and public health.
“It is an honour and privilege to be re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston and I would like to thank everyone for the trust they have placed in me. I will continue to work hard for the people and community I love,” Mr Gill wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Priti Patel: Former Home Secretary Priti Patel retained her Witham seat in Essex, defeating the Labour candidate with 37.2 percent of the vote. The Gujarati politician served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. Patel, a Conservative member, has been the Member of Parliament for Witham since 2010.
Gagan Mohindra: Born to a Punjabi Hindu family, Mohindra is a Conservative Party member and was re-elected for South West Herts in the UK general election. Gagan won with 16,458 votes, with Sally Symington of the Liberal Democrats coming in second with 12,002 votes. Both of his parents are from Punjab and emigrated to Britain before Mohindra was born. His paternal grandfather served in the British Indian Army.
Kanishka Narayan: a Alan Cairns, a Labour member and former Welsh Minister, lost to Labour’s Kanishka Narayan, Wales’ first ethnic minority MP. Born in India, Narayan moved to Cardiff at the age of 12. He was awarded a scholarship to Eton College and studied at Oxford and Stanford universities before joining the civil service. Narayan served in the Cabinet Office under David Cameron and in the Department for the Environment under Liz Truss. He has also worked in the private sector, advising companies on finances. Narayan also volunteers with Citizens Advice and the Trussell Trust.
read: ‘Change starts now’: Keir Starmer gives victory speech as Rishi Sunak concedes defeat in UK general election
Navendu Mishra: Mishra, a Labour member, won the Stockport constituency, a seat he had retained in the 2019 elections. His mother is from Gorakhpur and his father is from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Navendu Mishra was re-elected as an MP with 21,787 votes. The constituency has had a Labour MP every time since 1992.
Lisa Nandy: Nandy, a Labour member, easily defended his Wigan seat, which he has held since 2014, with 19,401 votes. Reform UK candidate Andy Dover came second with 9,852 votes. In a disastrous result for the Conservative Party, whose candidate Henry Mitson received just 4,310 votes. Nandy is the daughter of Deepak Nandy, a prominent Kolkata-born academic known for his work on race relations in the UK. A Labour member, he has represented Wigan since 2010.
Suella Braverman: The Indian-origin politician won in the constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville. During Sunak’s last cabinet reshuffle, Braverman caused controversy by saying the Metropolitan police had been tolerant of pro-Palestinian protesters. However, she was replaced as Home Secretary by James Cleverley.
A member of the Conservative Party, she was chair of the European Research Group from 2017 to 2018 and served as Attorney General for England and Wales from 2020 to March 2021 and from September 2021 to 2022. She was the Member of Parliament for Fareham from 2015 to 2024.
Shivani Raja: Shivani Raja won the Leicester East seat from Labour, in an election that also included high-profile candidates such as former MPs Claude Webb and Keith Vaz, who ran as independents.
Originally from Leicester, Raja was educated at Herrick Primary School, Soar Valley College, Wigston and Queen Elizabeth I College. She graduated with a first class honours degree in Cosmetic Science from De Montfort University (DMU).Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: A Sikh leader has been re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Slough. In a post on Twitter, he thanked the people of Slough for his re-election. Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi is the first turbaned Sikh Member of Parliament in the UK.
