Virendra Kumar Sharma (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

: , Punjabi: ; born 5 April 1947) is a British-Indian Labour Party

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He has been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Ealing Southall Ealing, Southall (also Ealing Southall) is a constituency created in 1974 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2007 by Virendra Sharma of the Labour Party. Constituency profile The constituency has relatively go ...

since winning the seat at a by-election in 2007.

Early life and background

Virendra Kumar Sharma was born on 5 April 1947 in Mandhali, Nawanshahr in the Punjab Province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(now Mandhali,

Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district is one of twenty-three districts of state of Punjab, India. It is located in Doaba region. It consists of three subdivisions, Nawanshahr, Banga, and Balachaur. There are three legislative seats in the district ...

Punjab, India Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...

) into a

Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. While Punjabi Hindus are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, many have ancestry from the greater Punjab region ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

family and received his education at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

on a trade union scholarship. In addition to English, Sharma is fluent in his native Indian languages of

and Punjabi. Sharma came to

Hanwell Hanwell () is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, in the historic County of Middlesex, England. It is about 1.5 miles west of Ealing Broadway and had a population of 28,768 as of 2011. It is the westernmost location of the London post t ...

, Ealing, West London from India in 1968 and became a

bus conductor Bus conductors (also referred to as conductors, or clippies) were a common feature of many bus services across Europe until the late 1970s and early 1980s. The main reason two-person crews were needed was that most towns and cities used doubl ...

on the 207 route, later working as a day services manager for people with learning disabilities in

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil pari ...

. He began his political career by joining the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, then switched to Labour. He was Race Equalities Officer to the Labour Party nationally. He was a councillor in the

London Borough of Ealing The London Borough of Ealing () is a London borough in West London. It comprises seven major towns: Acton (W3), Ealing (W5, W13, NW10), Greenford (UB6), Hanwell (W7), Northolt (UB5), Perivale (UB6) and Southall (UB1, UB2). With a population of 3 ...

from 1982 to 2010 and became Mayor. He was criticised for his low attendance and stood down as a councillor at the 2010 local elections.

Parliamentary career

Virendra Sharma was elected as MP in the Ealing Southall by-election, held on 19 July 2007. The by-election was called following the death of the sitting Labour MP,

Piara Khabra Piara Singh Khabra (Hindi: प्यारा सिंह खाबड़ा, Punjabi: ; 20 November 1921 – 19 June 2007) was a British-Indian Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Southall from 1992 until h ...

, on 19 June 2007. Sharma held the seat at the 2010 General Election. As a new MP in 2008, Sharma signed a letter drafted by

Keith Vaz Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving Brit ...

on behalf of Shahrokh Mireskandari, for which Vaz was criticised for not declaring his relationship with the family. Sharma said that Vaz had not informed him of the relationship and that he would "be more questioning before I sign a letter in future". In November 2008, the Labour government gave Sharma the role of

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

at the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

and Home Office,

Phil Woolas Philip James Woolas (born 11 December 1959) is a British environmental consultant, political lobbyist and former television producer and politician who served as Minister of State for Borders and Immigration from 2008 to 2010. A member of the ...

, who had responsibility for borders and immigration. Sharma resigned from this post in January 2009 in opposition to the Labour government's proposal to build a third runway at

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

. Sharma is a member of the parliamentary

select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues *Select or special committee (United States Congress) *Select ...

s on

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

Human Rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

and

International Development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications ...

. He has made official overseas visits as an MP to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, regions of India,

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and South Korea. He is vice-chair of the

All-Party Parliamentary Group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

for British-Hindus. He supported

David Miliband David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...

in the 2010 Labour leadership election. In 2016, in a reversal of his previous stance, Sharma announced that he now supported Heathrow expansion. In 2017, Sharma voted against the bill on triggering

Article 50 Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...

in the House of Commons, expressing his concern over Brexit's potential effects on the economy. In 2019, Sharma lost a vote of no-confidence at his Constituency Labour Party: the reasons given by opponents were his low attendance at party meetings, slow response to constituents communications and unwillingness to campaign against toxic emissions from the redevelopment of the Old Gasworks site (Southall Waterside).

Personal life

Sharma is a British-Indian, a British-Punjabi and a British-Hindu. He has been married to Nirmala Sharma since 1968. They have a son and daughter and three grandchildren. He has been the vice-chair of

APPG An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

for British-Hindus. He is currently a

school governor In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, school governors are the overseers of a school. In state schools, they have three main functions: *Giving the school a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction *Holding the headteacher to account for the ...

at the Three Bridges and Wolf Fields schools.

References

External links

Virendra Sharma site
*
UK Parliament Website: details of Sharma's parliamentary expenses'Ealing Times' newspaper column
written by Sharma and other Ealing MPs until 2008
UK Polling Report: Ealing Southall profile
including detail on Sharma {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Virendra 1947 births Living people Indian people Punjabi people Indian Hindus Punjabi Hindus Punjabi Brahmins People from Punjab, India People from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district Punjab, India politicians Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Indian emigrants to England People from Hanwell People from Southall People from Ealing People from London British people of Indian descent British people of Punjabi descent British Hindus English people of Indian descent English people of Punjabi descent English Hindus British politicians of Indian descent British politicians of Punjabi descent Politicians from London Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Alumni of the London School of Economics Councillors in Greater London Councillors in the London Borough of Ealing