Reacting to the announcement that a General Election on 8th June will be confirmed tomorrow in Parliament Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “An early General Election gives political parties and the Sikh community an opportunity to address the complete lack of Sikh representation in the House of Commons.”
“If the opinion polls prove to be accurate Labour is likely to lose many seats and the main beneficiaries will be the Conservatives.
“Some sitting MPs will no doubt be announcing in the next 24-48 hours they are retiring or not standing again where Sikh candidates could be a real possibility.”
“We are confident this is an opportunity for the two main political parties to each have two or three Sikh candidates in winnable seats giving us the possibility of four or five Sikh MPs within the next eight weeks.”
“We also think we could see the first Sikh woman MP and each of the parties could for the first time also have visible Sikhs in turbans becoming MPs. This should be seen as an opportunity for Sikhs to be at the heart of political decision-making in one of the most important times in recent British history.”
