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.