Name: Preet Kaur Gill MP

Constituency: Birmingham Edgbaston

Preet Gill is the first female British Sikh MP and a former social worker. She has represented  Edgbaston, where she was born, since 2017. In 2020, Gill won the prize at the MP of the Year Awards organised by the Patchwork Foundation, for championing young people and Fuel Poverty. In 2024, she became Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health where she worked with GPs, pharmacists and dentists at the NHS. She has also served as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. In this role she was one of the first Western politicians to visit Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul; created the first UK feminist development policy; advocated for a new model for international climate finance; and developed an international development strategy centred on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Any historical figures or a mentor, who inspired your entry into politics?

Growing up, my father was a huge inspiration to me. He taught me the importance of giving back to your community and helping others. He was supportive of my ambition to become the UK’s first female Sikh MP, but he sadly died in 2014 before I was elected. 

The Sikh suffragette princess Sophia Duleep Singh is also a heroine of mine. The goddaughter to Queen Victoria, she went on a remarkable political journey in the public eye, eventually using …