Labour's Asian MPs pledge to speak for India

Two veteran Indian-origin Labour MPs celebrated their victories. Election Pics

Two veteran Asian-origin Labour MPs on Friday celebrated their victories in the British general elections and said they would continue to represent India's interests in Parliament.

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Piara Singh Khabra and Keith Vaz returned from their Southall and Leicester East constituencies respectively even as other Labour seats tumbled across Britain.

Khabra, from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, won with a slightly reduced majority of 11,442 but an increased proportion of the vote.

However, Vaz, a former junior minister of Goan origin, managed to increase both his winning margin and the proportion of votes - a remarkable achievement in a difficult election for Labour.

		More Pictures Results: 621 of 646 seats   Labour Party: 353 (-47) Conservatives: 196 (+33) Liberal Dems: 60 (+11) Scottish Party: 6 Plaid Cymru: 3 Ulster Unionist: 0 Sinn Fein: 0 Independents: 3   Results of 2001 poll   Labour: 412 Conservatives: 166 Liberal Demos: 52   Asians in UK Poll   Three British-Asians, Paramjit Dhana from Gloucester, Shailesh Vara from NW Cambridgeshire and Piara Khabra from Southall Ealing were declared elected     Labour Party fielded 32 Asian and Black candidates, Liberal Democrats had 40 and the Conservatives had put up such 41 candidates

British Prime Minister Tony Blair won a historic third consecutive term in office but his Labour Party returned to power with a sharply reduced majority.

Khabra and Vaz were among the eight Asian-origin MPs voted into Parliament in Thursday's elections, including debutante Sailesh Vara, a solicitor who was elected from the safe Conservative seat of Cambridgeshire Northwest.

Vara became the first Asian vice-chairman of the conservative party in 2001 and is the first ethnic Gujarati to be elected to the British parliament.

He came to Britain from Uganda as a boy in 1972 and this was his third attempt at becoming an MP.

The others to be re-elected were: Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham Perry Barr), Marsha Singh (Bardford West), Mohamed Sarwar (Glasgow Central), Parmjit Dhanda (Gloucester) and Dr Ashok Kumar (Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East).

One Asian MP - Liberal Democrat Parmjit Gill, who won a by-election from Leicester South last year - lost his seat to Labour.

Khabra and Vaz exuded confidence and pledged support to India.

"I would very much hope that the government will treat India on par with China," Khabra said. "Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer) has already shown his interest in China. I hope there will be further interest by the government in India, which is emerging as a major global economic and trading power."

Vaz, whose constituency includes a large number of Indian-origin Britons, said he was "absolutely delighted" at his win, "especially after the results of the Labour Party".

"I've been an MP for 18 years and I've always been a great friend of India. I hope the relationship between India and Britain will grow faster during Britain's coming presidency of the European Union," Vaz said.