Federation agree partnership with Labour Party and announce plans for similar agreements with the other main parties

6 July 2005

The Sikh Federation (UK), the first and only Sikh political party in the UK, has today held its first official meeting with the Labour Party at Cabinet level following the General Election to agree a partnership deal that will see a drive to recruit more Sikh members to the Labour Party. The Federation hopes to hold similar meetings with each of the five leading parties to establish partnership working that it hopes will result in an increased participation by Sikhs in each of the main political parties. Meetings are already planned with two of the other parties with an official announcement expected at the Federation's annual Convention in Wolverhampton on Sunday 11 September 2005.

The Federation campaign titled: "Partnership for Change" is giving further clarification on its stated intention not to field its own candidates for local, national or European elections, but to work with each of the mainstream political parties to get greater Sikh representation at grassroots level and to see practising Sikhs in both the House of Commons and Lords.

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation said: "When the Sikh Federation (UK) came into existence in September 2003, some politicians, particularly those in the Labour Government feared we were an opposition party that may field our own candidates in elections with the view to splitting the Labour vote and resulting in the weakening of Labour's position. We have demonstrated at the last General Election we are true to our words, that we have no intention of putting up our own candidates under the banner of the Federation. However, we have every intention of encouraging practising Sikh candidates to be given the opportunity to be elected to Westminster and also to get representation for Sikhs in the House of Lords under the banner of one or more of the main political parties."

The meeting earlier today with the Labour Cabinet Minister was facilitated by Labour MPs. A proposal has been made for the Labour Party to agree to positively encourage the selection of several practising Sikhs as future MPs in specific safe Labour seats. This was discussed at length and the Federation indicated it had identified half a dozen existing safe Labour seats where the MP was likely to be stepping down and would be ideal to short list practising Sikh candidates.

For their part the Federation has agreed to identify and groom up to a dozen practising Sikhs over the next three to four years to be candidates for short listing as MPs. The candidates are almost certainly not likely to come from traditional sources i.e. Sikh councillors. Instead Sikh professionals, almost exclusively educated and brought up in the UK will be the ones that will make the best candidates that are likely to succeed. The Federation are believed to already have in mind several excellent candidates that are existing Labour Party members.

The dozen or so practising Sikhs will also include Sikhs that are members of the other two main political parties as the Federation hope that it will also be able to identify safe or winnable seats for Sikh candidates working in partnership with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. The meeting with Labour also discussed the possibility of practising Sikhs being introduced to the House of Lords. The emphasis again was on younger more articulate Sikhs and reference was made to the Hindu and Muslim communities already having representation. It was suggested the House of Lords option could also see the first practising Sikh becoming a Minister in the Government in the not too distant future.