LONDON: Twelve British-Pakistanis won the snap general elections held in the United Kingdom on June 8 to successfully become members of the House of Commons.
As many as 30 candidates of Pakistan origin took part in the election. Among the successful candidates, which includes five women, nine belong to Labour while three represent the Conservative party.
Khalid Mehmood, Shabana Mehmood, Rozeena-Allin Khan, Yasmin Qureshi, Naz Shah, Imran Hussain, Afzal Khan, Mohammed Yasin and Faisal Rasheed from Labour Party secured their spots to the Palace of Westminster.
Sajid Javed, Nusrat Ghani and Rehman Chishti from Conservatives also defended their respective constituencies successfully. Tasmeena Sheikh of Scottish National Party (SNP) lost her seat to Conservatives.
Afzal Khan from Gorton area of Manchester and Muhammad Yasin from Bendford have been elected on Labour party’s tickets for the first time.
Many other Muslim candidates were elected including Bangaldesh-origin Roshanara Ali of Labour from Bethnal Green, Rupa Huq from Ealing, Tulip Siddique from Hampstead and Liberal Democrats’ Palestinian- origin Layla Moran.
Meanwhile, twelve Indian-origin candidates also managed to make their way to the British parliament. The successful candidates include seven from Labour while five were elected on tickets from the Conservatives.
Yasmin Qureshi
Labour party’s Yasmin Qureshi, one of the first Muslim women parliamentarians, defended her seat as MP from Bolton South East for the third time.
Qureshi secured 25,676 votes, which is nearly 60 percent of the voter turnover, and won with an exceptional lead of nearly 12,500 votes.
“I’m very humbled to have been re-elected again with an increase majority. Thank you to everyone who supported me,” she wrote on her Twitter profile.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan from Labour won from Tooting, London with a 15,000 majority. Rosena had won the seat after Sadiq Khan resigned to become the Mayor of London.
Sadiq Khan sent his congratulations to the emergency room doctor for her “incredible result”. He has won the constituency in 2015 against a small margin.
“Humbled by all the messages of support. Thank you to those in Tooting who put their trust in me – I won’t let you down,” she said on Twitter after her win.
Naz Shah
Labour candidate Naz Shah from Bradford West won for the second time with a clear majority. She had defeated Respect Party leader in the 2015 elections.
Shah secured 29,744 votes while independent candidate Salma Yaqoob could only get 6345 votes, and won just fifty percent shy of the vote in a contest mired in controversy.
Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood contesting from Birmingham, Ladywood was re-elected as the Labour MP from her constituency for the third time. She won with an overwhelming margin of over 28,000 votes.
Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood defended his seat from Birmingham Perry Barr for the record fifth time. Mahmood gained 68 percent of the overall vote and returned with an increased majority of 18,383.
The Labour Party politician was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards in January 2015.
Imran Hussain
Imran Hussain won Bradford East constituency for the second time with a clear majority of over 20000 votes. He got 29,841 votes and won 65.4 percent votes of the overall turnout to present Labour party.
Afzal Khan
Labour’s Afzal Khan won the Gorton seat from Manchester for the first time. The seat has been vacant after the death of veteran MP Sir Gerald Kaufman.
Afzal Khan, who is also a member of the European Parliament, secured 35083 votes to easily win a challenge by George Galloway.
Mohammed Yasin
Labour’s Mohammed Yasin, who stood for the first time, defeated Conservative party’s Richard Fuller, who had served as Bedford and Kempston MP for seven years.
The win came as surprise for Yasin who was a councilor for the past eleven years. He won with a narrow margin of over 800 votes securing 22,712 votes with a turnout of 46.8 percent.
Faisal Rasheed
Labour Party candidate Faisal Rasheed won the Warrington south constituency with a majority of nearly 2500 votes.
Faisal who has was the first Muslim Lord Mayor of Warrington was the favourite from this constituency and secured 29,994 total votes with 48.4 percent turnout in favour of Labour.
Sajid Javid
Conservative candidate Sajid Javid from Bromsgrove has defended his seat for the third time. Sajid secured 33,493 votes and won the seat with a margin of over 16,000 votes for the Tory party.
The former managing director at Deutsche Bank has served in various ministerial posts. He was also tipped to become the joint leader of Tory party after resignation of Prime Minister David Cameroon.
“Deeply honoured to be re-elected by the people of Bromsgrove. Will do all I can to serve them and my country,” he wrote on Twitter after his reelection bid.
Rehman Chisti
Rehman Chishti successfully defended his seat for third time from Gillingham and Rainham constituency. He secured a total of 27,091 votes while his nearest rival could only get 17,000 votes.
Chisti was the former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General for England and Wales.
He has also served as a Political Adviser to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He attended the count on election night with Benazir’s sister Sanam Bhutto.
Nusrat Ghani
Nusrat Ghani, also known as Nas Ghani, won the Wealdon for the Conservative Party. She secured 37,027 total votes.
Ghani won the seat with a majority of over 24000 and retained the seat as member of Parliament from Wealden won in 2015 elections.
