24 Facts About Parmjit Dhanda

Parmjit Singh Dhanda was born on 17 September 1971 and is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Gloucester from 2001 until the 2010 general election, succeeding Tess Kingham as the Labour MP for the seat.

Parmjit Singh Dhanda was born on 17 September 1971 in Hillingdon, West London to immigrant Indian Punjabi Sikh parents, and was brought up in Southall.

Parmjit Dhanda's mother was a cleaner at a local hospital, whilst his father was a lorry driver.

Parmjit Dhanda was educated at Mellow Lane School, a state Comprehensive School in Hayes, Middlesex, before attending the University of Nottingham, where he received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1993, and an MA in information technology in 1995.

Parmjit Dhanda has been a member of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers since 1999.

Parmjit Dhanda speaks Punjabi and French, in addition to English.

Parmjit Dhanda became a Labour Party organiser in West London, Hampshire and Wiltshire in 1996, then went on to be an assistant national organiser with Connect in 1998 where he remained until he was elected to Westminster.

Parmjit Dhanda was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1998 and served on the council until 2002.

Parmjit Dhanda was selected to contest the House of Commons constituency of Gloucester at the 2001 general election - the seat Labour required for a parliamentary majority of 1 - following the decision of Tess Kingham to stand down.

Parmjit Dhanda made his maiden speech in the Commons on 27 June 2001, in which he made reference to the local newspaper's article stating that "the people of Gloucester had not reached a sufficiently advanced state of consciousness to accept a 'foreigner' as the local MP".

In parliament, Parmjit Dhanda became a member of the Science and Technology Select committee from his election until 2003.

Parmjit Dhanda helped set up an all-party group on Telecommunications, of which he was Secretary.

In November 2003, Parmjit Dhanda was asked by the Prime Minister Tony Blair to second the Loyal Address to the Monarch from the Houses of Commons.

Parmjit Dhanda retained his seat in 2005 with an increased majority of 4,280 votes.

Parmjit Dhanda was replaced by Sadiq Khan on 6 Oct 2008.

At the speaker's conference in October 2009, Parmjit Dhanda criticised the way that all 23 of Gordon Brown's cabinet were White, whereas Tony Blair's last cabinet had two "ethnic minority" cabinet ministers.

At the 2010 general election, Parmjit Dhanda lost his seat to Richard Graham of the Conservative Party.

The Telegraph reported that in December 2010, Parmjit Dhanda decided to retire from politics, moving from Gloucester to London.

Parmjit Dhanda did not seek election at the 2015 general election.

In 2015, Parmjit Dhanda published his political memoirs, My Political Race, An Outsider's Journey to the Heart of British Politics.

Since 2010, Parmjit Dhanda has run for selection in multiple Labour safe and target seats, including Brent Central in 2013, Aberavon in 2014, Ealing North in 2019 and Wycombe in 2022.

Parmjit Dhanda became Executive Director at Back Heathrow from June 2017, a campaign seeking to highlight the benefits of the Heathrow Airport Expansion.

In 2017 Parmjit Dhanda became the first non-executive Chair of the Allied Health Professionals Federation, the country's third largest staff representative organisation in the NHS.

Parmjit Dhanda is a non-executive director of the Longhurst Group, a housing association that builds social housing and provides social care on a not-for-profit basis.