2017 April 18

I attended the Vaisakhi celebrations in Parliament on Tuesday 18 April 2017 organised by Pat McFadden, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East. Sikhs from the Black Country and across the country attended Mr Speaker’s apartments to celebrate Vaisakhi, one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar. It is the Sikh New Year festival and it also commemorates 1699, the year Sikhism was born as a collective faith.

Parliament returned after the Easter Recess and I responded to a statement made by the Leader of the House, Rt Hon David Lidington MP, on the motion for a Early Parliamentary General Election. My speech is below: