Virendra Sharma

Virendra Sharma was born in Mandhali, India in 1947 in a Punjabi Hindu family[4] and received education at the London School of Economics on a trade union scholarship.[5] He speaks fluent Punjabi and Hindi in addition to English.

Sharma came to Hanwell from India in 1968 and became a bus conductor on the 207 route, later working as a day services manager for people with learning disabilities in Hillingdon. He began his political career by joining the Liberal Party, then switched to Labour. He was Race Equalities Officer to the Labour Party nationally.

He was a councillor in the London Borough of Ealing from 1982–2010 and became Mayor.[5] He was criticised for his low attendance[6] and stood down as a councillor at the 2010 local elections.

Virendra Sharma was elected as MP in the Ealing Southall by-election, held on 19 July 2007. The by-election was called following the death of the sitting Labour MP, Piara Khabra, on 19 June 2007.[7] Sharma held the seat at the 2010 General Election. As a new MP in 2008, Sharma signed a letter drafted by Keith Vaz on behalf of Shahrokh Mireskandari, for which Vaz was criticised for not declaring his relationship with the family. Sharma said that Vaz had not informed him of the relationship and that he would "be more questioning before I sign a letter in future".[8]

In November 2008, the Labour government gave Sharma the role of Parliamentary Private Secretary[9] to the Minister of State at the Treasury and Home Office, Phil Woolas, who had responsibility for borders and immigration. Sharma resigned from this post in January 2009 in opposition to the Labour government's proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Sharma is a member of the parliamentary select committees on Health, Human Rights and International Development. He has made official overseas visits as an MP to Cyprus, Kenya, regions of India, Mauritius and South Korea. He is Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils.[10] He supported David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election.

In 2016, in a reversal of his previous stance, Sharma announced that he now supported Heathrow expansion.[11]

In 2017, Sharma voted against the bill on triggering Article 50 in the House of Commons, expressing his concern over Brexit's potential effects on the economy.[12]

In 2019, Sharma lost a vote of no-confidence at his Constituency Labour Party: the reasons given by opponents were his low attendance at party meetings, slow response to constituents communications and unwillingness to campaign against toxic emissions from the redevelopment of the Old Gasworks site (Southall Waterside).[13]

Sharma has been married to Nirmala since 1968. They have a son and daughter and three grandchildren.[14] He has been the vice-chair of APPG for British Hindus.[15] He is currently a school governor at the Three Bridges and Wolf Fields schools.

• Virendra Sharma site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• UK Parliament Website: details of Sharma's parliamentary expenses
• 'Ealing Times' newspaper column written by Sharma and other Ealing MPs until 2008
• UK Polling Report: Ealing Southall profile including detail on Sharma