British Asians have played a large role in the recent politics of the United Kingdom. People from the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

 have had a role in the politics of the United Kingdom

Politics of the United Kingdom

The politics of the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government...

, starting from the British educated India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

ns who struggled for independence as well as Indians who became Members of Parliament. Second- and third- generation British Asians have managed to become involved in politics at trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, local and national level.

British Asians in Parliament

British Asians have also made an impact on the parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. The first Asian Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) was Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...

 in 1892. He was quickly followed by fellow Parsis Mancherjee Bhownagree

Mancherjee Bhownagree

Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownagree, KCIE, was a British Conservative Party politician of Indian Parsi heritage...

 and Shapurji Saklatvala

Shapurji Saklatvala

Shapurji Saklatvala was a British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. He was the third Indian Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom after fellow Parsis Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Bhownagree....

 during the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

No other British Asian MP was elected until Keith Vaz

Keith Vaz

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known as Keith Vaz, was born 26 November 1956 in Aden, Yemen.Keith Vaz is a British Labour Party politician and a Member of Parliament for Leicester East, He is the longest serving Asian MP and has been the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee since July...

 was elected to the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 in 1987. He was followed by others such as Piara Khabra

Piara Khabra

Piara Singh Khabra was a British politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Ealing Southall from 1992 until his death. He was the fifth Asian, and the first Sikh, to become a British MP...

, Niranjan Deva, Parmjit Dhanda

Parmjit Dhanda

Parmjit Singh Dhanda is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010, succeeding Tess Kingham as the Labour MP for the seat...

, Mohammad Sarwar

Mohammad Sarwar

Mohammad Sarwar is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament in Glasgow from 1997 to 2010, first for Glasgow Govan and then from 2005 for Glasgow Central. He was the first ever British Muslim MP....

 (the first British Muslim MP), Khalid Mahmood

Khalid Mahmood

Khalid Mahmood is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr since 2001.-Political career:...

 and Parmjit Singh Gill

Parmjit Singh Gill

Parmjit Singh Gill is a British Liberal Democrat politician. As Member of Parliament for Leicester South from 2004 to 2005, he is the only ever ethnic-minority Liberal Democrat MP....

. The first British-born Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s to be elected to Parliament were Shahid Malik

Shahid Malik

Shahid Rafique Malik is a British Labour Party politician who became the Member of Parliament for Dewsbury in 2005 after defeating Conservative Sayeeda Warsi, now Conservative Chair Baroness Warsi and remained so till 2010 when Conservative candidate Simon Reevell won Dewsbury...

 and Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Aman Khan is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Tooting since 2005, succeeding Tom Cox as the Labour MP for the seat...

 in 2005, both of Asian descent.

At the United Kingdom general election, 2010, Rushanara Ali

Rushanara Ali

Rushanara Ali is a British Labour Party politician and Associate Director of the Young Foundation, who has been the Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010...

, was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in London. She is the first person of Bangladeshi origin to have been elected to Parliament.

Several British Asians have also been awarded peerage

Peerage

The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...

s to sit in the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

, including Lord Paul

Swaraj Paul

Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, PC is an Indian-born, British-based business magnate, philanthropist, and Labour politician. In 1996 he became a life peer, sitting in the House of Lords with the title Baron Paul, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster...

, Baroness Warsi, Lord Desai, Baroness Uddin

Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin

Manzila Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin is a British Labour politician, and community activist.-Background:Uddin was born in a village in Bangladesh. She moved with her parents to the United Kingdom in 1973, when she was 13 years of age, and she grew up in the East End of London...

 (first Bangladeshi

British Bangladeshi

A British Bangladeshi is a person of Bangladeshi origin who resides in the United Kingdom having emigrated to the UK and attained citizenship through naturalisation or whose parents did so; they are also known as British Bengalis...

), Lord Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions...

, Lord Bilimoria, and Lord Dholakia.