Piara Khabra

Piara Singh Khabra, teacher and politician: born Khalsa, India 20 November 1924; MP (Labour) for Ealing Southall 1992-2007; twice married (one son); died London 19 June 2007.

There are some Members of Parliament who would not be offended if I said that they didn't cut any great dash in the House of Commons. But in contrast, they are hugely important in the area which selected them and sent them to Westminster. Such a one was Piara Khabra, Labour MP for Ealing Southall.

The circumstances of Khabra's selection in 1992 for the trouble-ridden, riot-prone area of Southall, to the west of London, made national headlines. Sydney Bidwell had been Labour MP for Southall, and then for the new seat of Ealing Southall, since 1966, but was deselected by the constituency Labour Party, although it would be unfair to Khabra to suggest that he led the deselection in order to get the seat for himself. That was not the situation. There were a great number of members of the party from the immigrant community who wanted one of their own to represent them in the House of Commons.

Bidwell made a much publicised appeal to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, but was rejected. At the 1992 election, Khabra won 23,476 votes, beating a distinguished Conservative candidate, Professor Philip Treleaven, who got 16,610. Bidwell, standing as True Labour, managed an embarrassing 4,665, with the Liberal, Pash Nandhra, trailing with 3,790.

Asked as a speaking guest of the Southall Labour Party in the mid-1990s, I came away realising that my friend and host was a man of towering importance in his own community. I say my friend because very often I would have lunch with him in the Members' cafeteria at 12 o'clock as soon as the food was available, because he and I both liked freshly cooked food. He and his ever-supportive second wife, Beulah, educated me in Indian-style cooking, and indeed about the problems of those who had come to Britain, as Khabra did, from the subcontinent.

After Khalsa High School, Khabra volunteered for the Indian Army as an 18-year-old in 1942. He told me that he had had good experiences of British officers and NCOs and had taken part in some of the bloody fighting when the Japanese armies were threatening Assam. He was interested in the negotiations for independence with the British government, which was a time of great excitement for the whole of India, in particular young people. However he was concerned about the role of businessmen in politics who were, as he saw it, robbing the economy of India. It was for this reason that he joined the Communist Party of India, a movement ideologically committed to socialism and fair distribution of wealth.

He became a teacher at elementary schools but decided in 1959, on the advice of relatives who had come to Southall, to join them. When he arrived, his teaching qualifications were not recognised, but after two years of factory work he got a job with British Oxygen and, by dint of sheer hard work at night school, in 1964 he won qualifications as a primary school teacher to work in the Inner London Education Authority.

On his arrival in Britain, he had soon become involved in the Indian Workers Association as an elected officer and also joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. Throughout the early Sixties, Khabra joined members of the party who would distribute leaflets and literature at bus stops and train stations and go on marches through London to Hyde Park Corner. However, as he saw it, the role of the CPGB remained insignificant in the elections. So in 1966 he left the party as a waste of time. He didn't want to appear, he told me, as a turncoat straight away, so he waited some time before joining the Labour Party, which he did in 1972. In 1978 he became a councillor for the London Borough of Ealing.

Khabra is one of very few people to have been a pensioner when they were first sent to Parliament. He was 67 when, on 9 April 1992, he was elected to the House of Commons. The opposition whips chose him in 1994 to be a member of the select committee on members' interests. I talked to him at length about this interesting task. He would say to me with that broad smile and gentle voice that I had no idea of the differences between India, where it was natural for politicians to receive gifts, and public attitudes in Britain. He was quite open about the fact that any financial challenges which he had as an MP would be sorted out by the community whose interests he was immersed in protecting. In 1997 he was chosen as a member of a select committee on international development.

Khabra's contribution on the floor of the House of Commons is encapsulated for me by his contribution to the debate of 23 March 2000 on Gordon Brown's fourth budget: "My speech will be brief, factual and relevant to today's debate and the proposals in the budget on education and employment, rather than being philosophical and speculative." Khabra spoke in favour of the new deal for 18-24-year olds, partnerships which must ensure equal opportunities for people of ethnic minority backgrounds. One of his other major causes was that of primary schools:

Everyone recognises that standards in teaching should be high from the start if we are to improve literacy, so primary schools will receive grants worth up to £9,000 each. The provision of an extra £20m to help primary schools to provide catch-up literacy and numeracy for the weakest pupils is also good news.

Actually it wasn't news to Khabra because he had been pressing ministers in private and he was one of those MPs to whom ministers would listen. He espoused the government's commitment to ensuring that children had the Three Rs and was also a champion of extending education maintenance allowances and encouraging young people to stay on in education. He was a fervent supporter of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whom he dubbed "The Action Man of the 21st Century".

In 2002, however, Khabra told Joe Kimble of The House Magazine:

The more recent intake of members, frankly, are frequently self-centred individuals and I do not think they have given enough time to politics to earn their positions. Previously, Members of Parliament had to work hard, giving their time and energy for many years before being elected. Some of the new intake, on the other hand, have had their positions offered to them on a plate and as such they may have lost the common touch.

Khabra expressed exactly the same sentiments to me, whom he liked to call an "old stager".

Tam Dalyell

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