British politician (born 1976)
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (; born 17 August 1978), commonly known as Tan Dhesi, is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Slough since 2017.
Early life and career.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi was born on 17 August 1978 in Slough to Indian immigrants. He spent his early years in Chalvey. He is the son of Jaspal Singh Dhesi, who runs a construction company in the UK, and the former president of Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, in Gravesend, which is the largest gurdwara in the UK.
Dhesi received most of his primary education in Punjab, before returning to the UK at the age of 9. He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics with Management Studies from University College London, studied Applied Statistics at Keble College, Oxford, and has a Master of Philosophy in the History and Politics of South Asia from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Following in his father's footsteps, Dhesi worked in construction for much of his life, running his own construction company in Scotland. He served as Director for Dhesi Construction Limited which became insolvent as records show on Companies House from July 2002 to January 2007 and DGP Logistics PLC from October 2005 to April 2011.
Local government career.
Dhesi represented Northfleet North on Gravesham Borough Council from 2007 to 2015, and was Mayor of Gravesham from 2011 to 2012. He was elected represent Northfleet and Gravesham West on Kent County Council in 2017, serving alongside Lauren Sullivan until his resignation in 2019.
Other voluntary roles whilst serving as a councillor include as school governor at two schools, a trustee with Alzheimer and Dementia Support Services, an advisor and member of Mencap and a member of the Independent Police Advisory Group to Kent Police.
Parliamentary career.
At the 2015 general election, Dhesi stood as the Labour candidate in Gravesham, coming second with 30.1% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Adam Holloway.
Dhesi was elected to Parliament at the snap 2017 general election as MP for Slough with 62.9% of the vote and a majority of 16,998. He became the UK's first turbaned MP. Dhesi gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons in July 2017.
Dhesi served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee from July 2018 until the dissolution of the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom on 6 November 2019.
At the 2019 general election, Dhesi was re-elected as MP for Slough with a decreased vote share of 57.6% and a decreased majority of 13,640.
Dhesi was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, in January 2020. He supported Lisa Nandy in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
Dhesi briefly served on the Defence Committee from March until May 2020, when he was appointed Shadow Railways Minister after Keir Starmer became Opposition Leader. He was Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from September to November 2023, and Shadow Exports Minister from November 2023 until the July 2024 general election.
In 2021, Dhesi was accused of attempting to hire volunteers for long term work without pay with the job being posted on the "Working For an MP" website. It was claimed that the posting of the job was an administrative error and that Dhesi himself was unaware of its existence, but he declined to comment to the HuffPost to confirm this.
At the 2024 general election, Dhesi was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 33.9% and a decreased majority of 3,647.
Personal life.
In 2012, his mother, Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, was jailed in India, accused of kidnapping and forcing an abortion on a teenage mother, who later died. The conviction was criticised by many commentators for being politically motivated, and an appeal was filed by Dalwinder in the immediate aftermath of the decision. In 2018, a double bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld this appeal. All charges against her were subsequently dropped.
Dhesi is familiar with eight languages and is fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, French and English. He also has a working knowledge of German, Italian and Latin.
References.
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