Piara Singh Khabra (Punjabi: ; 20 November 1921 – 19 June 2007) was a Punjabi-British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Southall from 1992 until his death. He was the fifth British Asian, and the first Sikh, to become a British MP.
From the retirement of Sir Edward Heath in 2001 until his death, Khabra was the oldest MP sitting in the House of Commons, and was the last sitting MP to have served in the Commonwealth's forces during the Second World War.
Background
Piara Singh Khabra was born into a Punjabi Sikh farming family of the Khabra clan in the Punjab Province of British India. Khabra gave his year of birth as 1924, but his marriage certificate dated it as 1921. He requalified in 1964, becoming an elementary teacher and then a social worker.
He left the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in the 1960s, and joined the Labour Party in 1972. He became a justice of the peace in 1977, and was elected as a member of Ealing Council in 1978. He briefly joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, leaving two years later and returning to Labour in 1988. He sponsored one of the most successful early day motions on autism in the 2002 Autism Awareness Year; it was supported by 153 parliamentarians of all parties. Khabra backed the work of the Autism Awareness Campaign UK.
How Khabra voted on key issues from 2001 to 2007:
- Voted very strongly for the Iraq War
- Voted very strongly for university tuition fees
- Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
- Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards
- Voted very strongly for replacing Trident
- Voted very strongly for the hunting ban
- Voted strongly for equal LGBT rights
- Voted strongly for a stricter asylum system
- Voted for more EU integration
- Voted moderately for laws to stop climate change
- Voted moderately for introducing foundation hospitals
- Voted moderately for a smoking ban
- Voted moderately for removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords
- Voted a mixture of for and against greater autonomy for schools
- Voted moderately against a wholly elected House of Lords
- Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq War
Controversy
Khabra was known to have made several controversial statements. In the run-up to the 2001 general election, he suggested that Avtar Lit, chairman of Sunrise Radio and an independent challenger for his seat, should be "sent back to India".
Retirement and death
In late 2006, Khabra announced that he would stand down at the next general election.
Khabra died as a result of liver problems on the night of 19 June 2007 at Hammersmith Hospital in White City within Shepherd's Bush, West London; where he had been being treated for abscesses on the liver since April.
He customarily gave his year of birth as 1924; birth registration was not compulsory in the Indian state of Punjab until 1970 and so no birth certificate exists, but on his marriage certificate his year of birth was recorded as 1921.