Majority of Sikh voters expected to back Labour

The Sikh Federation (UK) has been preparing for a new Labour government for over two and half years.  They have been having meetings with senior members of the Shadow Cabinet to discuss specific issues of mutual interest going back to November of 2021.  

One of the last follow up meetings took place with Wes Streeting on the morning Rishi Sunak announced the General Election.  Other meetings planned for this month, such as with Pat McFadden, the Labour National Campaign Co-ordinator had to be cancelled when the snap General Election was called.  

However Wes Streeting, Pat McFadden and other Shadow Cabinet Ministers and junior Ministers with large numbers of Sikh constituents have had local Sikh community engagement and provided reassurances about many of the issues in the Sikh Manifesto. 

Last Tuesday, Narinderjit Singh the General Secretary of the Sikh Federation (UK) hosted Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party at Sri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend, the largest Gurdwara in Europe.  

The local Labour candidate for Gravesham Dr Lauren Sullivan was also in attendance and is expected to overturn a 15,000 Conservative majority held by Adam Holloway with the backing of most of the large local Sikh community.     

The Conservative vote is haemorrhaging, in part to Reform UK and Labour realise there are dozens of other seats, like Gravesham where the Sikh vote is critical in determining the final outcome on the 4th of July.  

One million Sikh voters up and down the country are expected to punish Conservative politicians for their appalling xenophobic and unacceptable actions towards Sikhs over the last five to six years, including their deliberate demonisation of Sikhs to appease the Indian Government and total silence if not assistance in the transnational repression by the Indian government of Sikh activists in the Diaspora.  

In constituencies where Labour is not the main rival to the Conservatives Sikhs are expected to back candidates of other parties, including the Liberal Democrats and Greens.      

The third edition of the 10-point Sikh Manifesto compiled by the Sikh Network was released on 7 June and has proved to be a masterstroke.  The latest Sikh Manifesto intentionally reflects some of the assurances Keir Starmer and other senior figures in the Labour Party have been giving since the last General Election.   In comparison the Hindu Manifesto has proved to be controversial and been widely ignored or condemned.  

The Labour leadership and its candidates understand and appreciate the mature approach taken by British Sikhs who want to see specific actions and are tired of politicians paying them lip-service and singing their praises as a role model community.  

Whilst an incoming Labour Government wants a constructive trading relationship with the Indian government it realises there will be challenges as it will be under immense internal pressure to publicly condemn the Indian government for its targeting of religious and other minorities, the press and civil society organisations. 

Some of the areas where specific assurances have been given by the Labour leadership and the Sikh community will remind the Labour Government and MPs elected on the 4th of July include:

• An independent judge-led public inquiry into the UK Government advice and assistance to the Indian authorities in planning a military attack on the Sikhs’ holiest shrine in Amritsar in June 1984, including examining the range of anti-Sikh measures taken in the UK in the Thatcher era. 
• Securing the immediate release and return to the UK of Jagtar Singh Johal who has been tortured and arbitrarily detained in an Indian jail since November 2017.
• Recognise Anti-Sikh hate in a similar fashion to Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and support community-led initiatives to address under-reporting.
• Return to effective engagement with Sikh community organisations and stop demonisation of British Sikhs to appease India, including looking at the discriminatory use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 against Sikhs in the last 12 months.
• Work with the Five Eyes nations and other western countries to confront the threat of transnational repression and political interference by the Indian government targeting Sikhs in the Diaspora and support calls for an inquest into the mysterious death of Avtar Singh Khanda in the UK in June 2023.
• Ensuring public bodies systematically collect good quality information on Sikhs not only as a religion, but also an ethnicity to address equal opportunities and anti-discrimination and Sikhs do not become completely invisible to decision makers.  
• The introduction of a Statutory Code of Practice to protect and promote understanding of the Sikh identity. 
• A full apology by Keir Starmer as the next Prime Minister to the worldwide Sikh community for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on the 13th of April 1919.

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “We are less than a week away before we have a Labour Government with a six-fold increase in the number of Sikh MPs who will all be part of that government.”

We have been given specific assurances by the Labour leadership and put our trust in them. We are hopeful a Labour Government that is bold and courageous and could be in power for a decade can work with the Sikh community that has so much to offer not only in the UK, but on the global stage.”

He added: “The Sikh Manifesto over the last decade has encouraged and improved Sikh political engagement with politicians on all sides and we are confident there will be a massive turnout of the one million Sikh voters next Thursday.” 

Those thinking short term by using their vote to protest over Gaza and try and punish Labour candidates by backing independent candidates on the 4th of July need to think very carefully.  They could be shooting themselves in the foot by not only wasting their vote, but alienating those who will be in power for the next decade.   

Armed with the Sikh Manifesto over the last decade the Sikh community has matured politically.  We will judge the Labour Government and leadership in which we have placed our trust by their record in the next five years and when they look for re-election.”