UK Gets First Turbaned MP as Labour Lifts Count of Indian-origin Winners

London: Britain on Friday got its first female Sikh and first turban-wearing MPs as the general election results began pouring in with Indian-origin Labour Party candidates winning more seats than their rival Conservatives.

Labour Party candidate Preet Kaur Gill won her Birmingham Edgbaston seat by polling 24,124 votes, defeating ruling Conservative party rival Caroline Squire by 6,917 votes.

"Credit to the Labour Party leadership for taking the bold step of giving Sikhs the opportunity to fight for winnable seats. Labour now needs to turn its attention to having visible Sikh representation in the House of Lords at the first opportunity so Sikhs are better represented and can bring fresh thinking and ideas," Sikh Federation UK said in a statement.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, known as Tan, won his Slough seat decisively polling 34,170 votes, to become Labour's first turban-wearing MP.

"Credit to the Labour Party leadership for taking the bold step of giving Sikhs the opportunity to fight for winnable seats. Labour now needs to turn its attention to having visible Sikh representation in the House of Lords at the first opportunity so Sikhs are better represented and can bring fresh thinking and ideas," Sikh Federation UK said in a statement.

A second turban-wearing Sikh of the Labour Party Kuldip Sahota lost out to his Conservative rival by just 720 votes.

The 2015 general election first-timers for the Tories Rishi Sunak and Suella Fernandes have also held on to their seats decisively with a margin of 23,108 and 21,555 votes respectively.

For the Labour party, the longest serving Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz held on to his Leicester East seat attracting 35,116 votes and his sister Valerie Vaz also won a solid 25,286 votes to hold on to her Walsall South seat.

Among some of the prominent losses, Labour's Neeraj Patil the former mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth lost to Justine Greening, the UK's Education Minister.

He lost by a margin of1,554 votes to Greening, who was defending her Conservative party stronghold.

The Labour Party had selected 14 Indians and Conservative Party 13 as their parliamentary candidates.

So far, the tally looks stronger for the Labour Party with seven Indian-origin MPs to Tory's five.

The ruling Conservative party is on course to be the single largest party in the UK general election as many of the results and leads become clear in the ongoing count.