Published 20:37 IST, December 13th 2019
Indian community hails Boris Johnson's massive election victory in UK
The Indian community applauded the victory of re-elected Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson on December 13 who acquired a thumping majority in parliament
The Indian community applauded the victory of re-elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom Boris Johnson on Friday, December 13. Johnson acquired a thumping majority in the British Parliament with 364 seats which also saw unprecedented activism by the community members against the UK main opposition Labour Party for its anti-India stance.
During his victory speech, Johnson also addressed the enthusiastic audience roaring phrases like, 'we did it', 'we pulled it off', 'broke the deadlock'.
Across both the winning Conservative Party as well as the Labour Party, the Indian-origin candidates registered strong results in the UK general elections on December 12. Dozens of politicians retained their seats in the British Parliament along with some new faces.
Boris Johnson was re-elected as the Prime Minister assuring the Parliament of a Brexit-dominated outcome. All Indian-origin members of the Parliament were successful in clinching their seats, with the first-timers being Gagan Mohindra and Claire Coutinho for the Conservatives and Navendru Mishra for Labour.
Indian-origin MP's in election
The Goan-origin Coutinho said that it is 'time to get Brexit done' and then move on to investing in British schools, hospitals and police in order to keep the streets safe.
Coutinho won the Tory-held Surrey East seat with 35,624 votes, with a Conservative majority of 24,040 with Mohindra retained his South West seat with 30,327 votes and a majority of 14,408.
The former UK homes secretary, Priti Patel also retained her place in the parliament and is likely to remain in Johnson's top team in the new cabinet as well. Patel acquired 32,876 votes at her Witham constituency in Essex and held on to a majority of 24,082 for the Conservatives.
Even Patel's Cabinet colleagues managed to have a positive outcome in the UK general elections. Rishi Sunak clinched 36,693 votes and Alok Sharma, the former international development minister polled 24,393 votes from Reading West. Shailesh Vara won the North West Cambridgeshire seat with a majority of 25,983. Suella Braverman also clinched 36,459 votes for Fareham.
Call to British Indians
Johnson's Conservative party had yet again attempted, to woo the British Indians for support just ahead of the general elections in Britain on December 12. Before the Thursday polls, Conservatives called the Indian voters by circulating a video in Hindi featuring the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi along with Johnson.
Such attempts to target the British Indians were first seen in 2015, then in 2017 and now again for the most recent elections. Johnson's closeness with the Indian community in Britain was also seen in his recent visit to BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, north-west London on December 7.
During his visit, Johnson also recalled his conversations with PM Modi. Furthermore, Johnson made it categorically clear that anti-India sentiment would not be tolerated in the UK.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 08:27 IST, December 14th 2019