Here are the major winners and losers:
THE BIGGEST WINNERS
1) Rishi Sunak (Richmond and Northallerton)
Rishi Sunak’s election campaign started with Tony Blair’s Things Can Only Get Better blasting from protesters in front of 10 Downing Street and ended as he patiently waited behind the “world’s most tattooed mother” for his ITV interview.Sunak might have lost the war, but he won his personal battle as he managed to stave off the ignominy of being the first British Prime Minister to lose his seat. Sunak’s reign will not be fondly remembered for those of a Conservative persuasion, but he did manage to give us a few laughs along the way.
2) Priti Patel (Witham in Essex)
Dame Priti Patel was re-elected as Witham’s MP winning by a landslide of 18,827 votes, beating Labour’s Rumi Chowdhury, who came second with 13,682 votes. Before the election, former PM Boris Johnson had campaigned for her calling her “original Brexiteer” and a driving force of “the Rwanda scheme” that Johnson called the best hope of “stopping cross-Channel gangs from bringing people into our country”.
3) Suella Braverman (Fareham and Waterlooville)
The former Home Secretary had thrown in the towel for the Tories even before the election, warning that the Conservatives had to return to the right or be usurped by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Despite courting controversy for claiming the Metropolitan Police were too lenient with pro-Palestine supporters, she managed to hold on to her seat comfortably edging out the Labour candidate.
4) Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst (Solihull West and Shirley)
One of the new Tory faces in this year’s House of Commons, Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst will represent Solihull West and Shirley. He worked as a surgeon in the NHS, but a peripheral neuropathy made him swap a surgical career for a legal one and he became a barrister specialising in healthcare-related law. The Solihull West and Shirley was created as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.
5) Shivani Raja (Leicester East)
Shivani Raja pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the election as she beat out a host of heavyweights including former MPs Claude Webbe and Keith Vaz. It was the first time a seat in Leicester was picked by the Tories in 37 years. Raja benefited from a vote-cutting among Labour and Independent candidates by voters angry at the Labour’s lukewarm response to the Gaza war. Shivani Raja is a Leicester-born who studied in the city at Herrick Primary, Soar Valley College, Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth II college. She also graduated with First Class Honours in Cosmetic Science from De Montfort University (DMU).
6) Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West)
Warinder Juss is a new Labour face in the House of Commons who managed to flip a Conservative seat beating Tory candidate Mike Newton by nearly 8000 votes. Juss, a personal injury lawyer, had campaigned to save local pubs and is also a fan of BR Ambedkar. He said while speaking at his 133rd birth anniversary: “To achieve social reform we also need to exercise political power.”
7) Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham Edgbaston)
Preet Kaur Gill managed to hold on to her constituency that is most famous for sending Neville Chamberlain to the House of Commons. Gill faces backlash earlier for “undermining Sikh victims of sexual violence” in Gurudwaras and was also accused of having links to Khalistani groups. She had harboured controversy when she posed with Keir Starmer in front of a gallery of Sikh separatists including Labh Singh, former leader of the Khalistan Commando Force and Sukhdev Singh Babbar, who had links to the Air India flight bombing in 1985.
8) Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough)
Tan Dhesi held on to his seat of Slough, edging out Independent Azhar Chohan by nearly 3000 seats. The first turbaned member of the House of Commons, his father Jaspal Dhesi was the president of UK’s largest Gurudwara. Dhesi has been vocal about several issues that irked New Delhi including the farmers’ protest and article 370. He has said in the past that “human rights are a universal issue” and that it was sad that Sikhs who raised their voices were labelled “Khalistanis”.
9) Lisa Nandy (Wigan)
Lisa Nandy comfortably held on to her seat of Wigan beating number 2 Andy Dawber by nearly 10,000 votes. The daughter of academic Dipak Nandy and Ann Luise Byers, she became a Labour MP in 2010. Nandy challenged for the Labour leadership in 2020 and came in third behind current leader Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey.
10) Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston)
Seema Malhotra is set to become a five-time MP from a constituency she had held on to since 2011 after edging out Conservative Reva Gudi. One of the most prominent faces in Labour, she is a long-term critic of Margaret Thatcher. Lamenting about the “14 years of decline of education” under the Tories, Malhotra believes devolution will be crucial to filling skills gaps.
11) Gurinder Singh Josan (Smethwick)
The first Sikh member to be elected to Labour’s governing body the national executive committee (NEC), Josan comfortably held on to his seat, beating the Reform UK candidate by over 10,000 votes. A Corbyn-sceptic, he has come into his own under the Starmer leadership.
12) Kanishka Narayan (Vale of Glamorgan)
Kanishka Narayan, a rising star in the Labour party, became the first Indian-origin MP of Wales after beating Conservative Alun Cairns by 4000 votes. Narayan was born in India and moved to Cardiff when he was 12. He got into Eton on a scholarship, went on to study at Oxford and then Stanford before becoming a civil servant. Narayan said he said he joined the party because of a “passion for social mobility”.
13) Sonia Kumar (Dudley)
Labour’s Sonia Kumar beat her Conservative rival Marco Longhi by almost 2000 votes. An NHS therapist, she called the Labour nomination the “honour of her life”. She was the subject of a dog-whistle attack two weeks before the election, when Marco Longhi her Conservative rival sent out a letter to the “the British Pakistani/Kashmiri community in Dudley” highlighting Kumar’s surname while claiming he was at the forefront of “speaking against the Indian government atrocities towards people of Kashmir”.
14) Jas Athwal (Ilford South)
Jas Athwal beat Independent Noor Begum by nearly 7000 votes. Born in Punjab, India, Jas Athwal’s family moved to England when he was seven. His mother worked at home sewing ties while his father worked at a tin factory. In May 2018 borough council elections, Athwal secured 51 of the 63 seats for Labour. Athwal was in line to be the Labour candidate of Ilford South in 2019 before he was suspended after allegations of sexual harassment. Instead, a candidate close to Jeremy Corbyn was selected. Wes Streeting, a neighbouring MP, had described the events as an “undemocratic stitch up”. He was later cleared of wrongdoing and his suspension was lifted.
15) Baggy Shanker (Derby South)
Baggy Shanker, the leader of the Derby City Council who was removed before the election, won the constituency by over 6000 votes, beating six candidates. His closest opponent was Reform UK’s Alan Graves who got 8501 votes. Shanker’s father came to Derby in the 1950s and worked in a foundry, and Shanker says his father’s role made him inspired to help immigrants. He was backed to be MP for Derby South by former MP Margaret Beckett who is Britain’s longest-serving MP and served Derby South since 1983.
16) Satvir Kaur (Southampton Test)
Satvir Kaur comfortably won from Southampton Test and was pegged as another rising star in the Labour party. She became involved in politics in 2010 after meeting local MP John Denham. On joining politics, she had said: “I realised you, as an individual, can be part of something bigger and make a meaningful change.” Kaur says her priority would be housing and at the Labour conference in 2022, she was charged with introducing Starmer. In 2016, she campaigned for Hillary Clinton.
17) Harpreet Uppal (Huddersfield)
Harpreet Uppal wanted to become Huddersfield’s first female MP and she’s about to live up to her dream. Born and raised in Fartown, she won by a majority of 4,500 seats. She said after winning, telling Huddersfield Hub: “I cannot tell you how much it means to be elected MP for Huddersfield. It’s my home town and where I still live. It feels amazing.” She has also worked with the NHS.
18) Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East)
Nadia Whittome, the youngest MP in the House of Commons when she was elected in 2019, held on to her seat comfortably winning by over 15,000 votes. She had caused controversy when she had said that Rishi Sunak’s elevation as Prime Minister wasn’t a win for “Asian representation”. In a tweet that was deleted after discussion with Labour whips, she had also posted: “Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side.”
Whittome identifies as queer and was Pink News’ politician of the year in 2020. She only claims £35,000 of the £81,932 salary, the rest of which she donates to various charities.
She has been vocal about her stance on social justice and said: “We should be unequivocally, unapologetically and actively against antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, other forms of racism”
BIGGEST LOSERS
1) Dr Reva Gudi (Feltham and Heston)
New Tory face Dr Reva Gudi from Hillingdon, West London lost to Labour heavyweight Seema Malhotra. She managed to get 8195 votes and lost by a similar margin to Malhotra. A proud Hindu, she had said she was inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. She said in a video message: “I have found the message of the Bhagavad Gita, highlighting the letting go of ego, detachment and service without any desire for the fruits of action, have helped me navigate this journey making it for the most part very enjoyable.”
2) Nupur Mazumdar (Lewisham North)
First-generation immigrant and Conservative candidate Nupur Mazumdar came in fourth in Lewisham North behind winner Vicky Foxcroft (Labour), Adam Pugh (Green) and Jean Branch (LibDem). A first-generation immigrant, Nupur Majumdar is proud to call herself a British citizen. She graduated from Delhi University and runs multiple businesses.
3) Eric Sukumaran (Southgate And Wood Green)
Eric Sukumaran hoped to become the first Malayali MP in the House of Commons but he lost comprehensively to Labour’s Bambos Charalambous. Raised in northeast London, he is from Varkala.
He had told The New Indian Express: “My maternal grandfather, Narayanan Viswambaran, arrived in England on July 20, 1969, the same day that man first walked on the Moon! He had very little in terms of possessions, and just two generations later, his grandson is running for parliament. I have always wanted to contribute to this country that gave my family so much. I am a Conservative because I believe in its core principles of individual freedom, respect for tradition and the constitution, and the belief in business as the driver of prosperity.”
4) Praful Nargund (Islington North)
Labour candidate Praful Nargund always had an uphill task against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North. Nargund lost to Corbyn, now an Independent, by nearly 8000 votes. Nargund, who is a huge Arsenal fan (the club lies within the constituency boundaries), was condemned to the same fate as the Gunners who came in second to Manchester City. Earlier, he worked as Chief Executive of a company called ABC IVF that was founded by his mother Geeta.
5) Rajesh Agrawal (Leicester East)
Rajesh Agrawal will be left to contemplate the phrase “too many Left cooks spoil the broth” as he found himself on the end of dear upset in the desi Royal Rumble of Leicester East. Agrawal was up against former Leicester MPs Keith Vaz and Claude Webbe, and LibDem Zuffar Haq. One of the biggest upsets in this year’s election, a Leicester constituency turned Conservative after 37 years as Shivani Raja of the Tories emerged victorious.
6) Keith Vaz (Leicester East)
Britain’s most notorious Asian MP, Keith Vaz was back in the fray as a Leicester One candidate and ended up losing in the desi Royal Rumble of Leicester East. A person who was once given the sobriquet of the “the most incredible networker” and could count on the likes of Theresa May, Tony Blair and Ed Miliband to come to his parties only ended up with 3681 votes.
7) Mohamed Hanif Alli (Bolton North East)
Hanif Alli, who campaigned exclusively on a pro-Gaza agenda, ended up fourth with only 4683 votes. Labour’s Kirith Entwistle won the seat by 16,166 votes. Before the election, Alli who used to be a Labour councillor had argued that Keir Starmer’s Labour was indistinguishable from the Tories.
He had said before the election: “The Gaza war is huge on the agenda at the moment, as you know. Both of the major main parties weren’t calling for an immediate ceasefire, and the sale of weapons has still not stopped. The Gaza/Palestine issue did play a big factor in this, but I also think a big factor is people were looking for change.”
8) Anita Prabhakar (Nottingham East)
Anita Prabhakar, who had contested on a LibDem ticket ended up a disappointing fifth in the race in Nottingham East that was won comfortably by Nadia Whittome. She only managed to get 1751 votes.
According to the LibDem website, Prabhakar has a master’s degree in constitutional law from Bengaluru and corporate law from Nottingham Trent University. Prabhakar believes each child in the UK deserves the best education and has been an active member of the LibDem party. She is also a member of the Rights, Liberty and Justice, a LibDem’s Lawyer Association.