Nadhim Zahawi, the chief executive of online market research agency YouGov, also became the first Iraqi Kurd to become a UK MP by successfully defending the Conservatives? 10,000-plus majority in Strafford, central England.
As many as seven British Pakistanis including two women have been elected in the UK elections 2010. Five of these seven have won elections on the tickets of Labour Party while the rest of them have secured seats on the tickets of Conservative Party.
The Great Britain heads towards a coalition government where Conservatives are seeking a comprehensive power sharing deal with Liberal Democrats. With these seven British Pakistanis who wonelections , the number of Muslim parliamentarians in UK Parliament has increased to eight. There were four Muslim MPs in the last Parliament all of Pakistani-origin. For the first time, two British Pakistani women have made their way to British Parliament.
According to the news emanating from London, a British Pakistani, Yasmin Qureshi, 47 years old practising barrister, held on to the Labour Party seat from Bolton southeast constituency (north west England), leaving behind her Conservative Party rival Andy Morgan by 2,955 votes. Yasmin contested the election in place of Dr Brian Iddon who has retired from politics.
Barrister Shabana Mahmood, a Labour candidate, remained the other British Pakistani who won election with a lead of 19,950 votes. She defeated her nearest Liberal-Democrat rival Ayoub Khan who bagged 9,845 votes.
Anas Sarwar, son of former Labour MP Muhammad Sarwar, made a successful entry into the mainstream British politics by winning the Glasgow Central constituency in the UK parliamentary election. Anas, a dentist by profession, was contesting on a seat vacated by his father who in 1997 became the first Muslim to enter British Parliament on a Labour Party ticket. Sarwar who emigrated from Toba Tek Singh in 1976 remained a British MP for 13 years before deciding to stand down from 2010 general election.
Interesting development was that all the Pakistani British candidates who contested from the platform of Liberal Democrats faced defeat.
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