Parmjit Gill MP to make Maiden Speech

London, Nov. 23, 2004
NRI Press

Parmjit Singh Gill MP, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Leicester South, today makes his maiden speech in the House of Commons. The speech, which will follow in the afternoon of the Queen's Speech, will focus on the needs of Mr Gill's constituency as well as celebrate Leicester's cultural diversity.

Mr Gill will describe Leicester as "the most tolerant, multicultural city of Europe" and "a beacon of hope for race relations and peace, both for the UK and the world."

Mr Gill's speech is full of praise for his home city, and shows a man who is proud and excited to be representing the people of Leicester South.

In his speech Mr Gill will say:

"I owe a great debt of gratitude to the people of Leicester, who have given me the privilege of representing them. When they elected me, they sent a powerful message to this country. They want to restore trust in politics and trust in our politicians. It is a challenge for me and for all honourable members.

"I am honoured to be elected the first Liberal Democrat MP in my Constituency for over 80 years and further honoured to be the first Sikh Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament in British history, and the first elected Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament from a Black minority ethnic community since 1892.

"Leicester has been awarded Beacon status from the Government in 'Promoting Racial Equality' in 2002, and 'Community Cohesion' in 2003. It has been recognised as a model of diversity not only in the UK but throughout Europe and across the world.

"Leicester has academic expertise in medicine with teaching hospitals and the educational strength of the City is a major attraction with approximately 40,000 students at Leicester and De Montfort Universities, about 14% of the cities population. Both Universities are located within my constituency, as are a very large proportion of the students.

"However desirable Leicester is as a place to study....this House cannot ignore the fact that undergraduate students face a real financial burden from tuition and top-up fees. This is expressed repeatedly to me by hundreds of very concerned young people."

"Leicester South is a great Constituency and I shall passionately represent the ward areas of Aylestone, Castle, Eyres Monsell, Freemen, Knighton, Stoneygate and Spinney Hills, to the best of my ability."

BIO:

Parmjit Singh Gill MP, UK

Parmjit Singh Gill was born in Leicester and has lived all his life in the UK. He has experience in the fields of crime prevention, taxi licensing and racism. His political experience covers 10 years. He is highly committed to fighting inequality and injustice and has the skills and experience to do this effectively.

The Liberal Democrats have scored another sensational by-election victory, taking the seat of Leicester South from Labour with a 22% swing from Labour. The victorious Parmjit Singh Gill has become the party's first MP from an ethnic minority. In his victory speech he stressed that the public had sent a strong message: "the Prime Minister has abused and lost their trust."

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy congratulated Parmjit Singh Gill on becoming the Party’s newest and first ethnic minority MP upon his election as Member of Parliament for Leicester South. Commenting on Mr Gill’s spectacular win over Labour, Mr Kennedy said: "This is a fantastic night of success for the Liberal Democrats. The story of the night is of two party politics in the cities - the Liberal Democrats versus Labour. Yet again we have shown that we can take on Labour and win. We have proved that the Liberal Democrats’ win in Brent East was no flash in the pan and this will have big implications for the next General Election. The Conservatives are going nowhere except further down and out. This demonstrates that in large areas of the country a Conservative vote is now a wasted vote. The Liberal Democrats remain positively on course for a further major stride forward at the next General Election."

In the local elections in 2003, Leicester South voted 42% Lib Dem, 27% Labour, 20% Conservative. The Lib Dem victory on July 15th follows their Brent East success in September 2003. The Leicester South by-election was caused by the death in May of Labour MP Jim Marshall. Parmjit Singh Gill overturned a Labour majority of 13,243 votes.

Any comments on this article or you have any news: Click here

Disclaimer
NRIinternet.com will put up as many of your comments as possible but we cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. We reserve the right to edit comments that are published.