London: His mother worked as a cleaner in a local hospital and his father was a lorry driver. Like many Indians looking for greener pastures abroad, the couple from Jalandhar came to the United Kingdom in the 1960s.

The struggle in the formative years of his life left a deep impact on their son Parmjit Dhanda. Most of what they earned went towards education of their three children.

Parmjit passed out of the Mellow Lane School before going on to study engineering at Nottingham University and later completed his MSc in information technology.

A year after leaving university, he was appointed as one of the Labour Party's organisers. At 29, he became the youngest-ever Member of Parliament (MP) of Asian origin to enter the House of Commons.

"My mum was a cleaner in a hospital, a job many were reluctant to do," he says with pride about his mother's working class background.

Fighting for her rights, his mother got involved in trade union activity. And this led to his interest in the trade union affairs.

"I too worked in the trade union movement," Parmjit, now 32, told a group of visiting Indian journalists.

Confident and articulate, the Labour MP said after spending seven years volunteering and campaigning for the local Labour Party branch, he led a successful campaign in the London borough of Ealing in 1998.

Steadily moving ahead on the politician horizon, Parmjit was soon elected as a councillor for the London borough of Hillingdon, a role he was asked to continue, albeit in a diminished capacity, till the term ended in May last year.

He was an 'outsider' when he decided to contest from Gloucester, facing an array of strong candidates and the odds heavily stacked against him.

Parmjit, who succeeded Tess Kingham as MP, says his candidacy speech tilted the pendulum in his favour. He still vividly remembers the loud applause when he said, "First and foremost, I will be a hard- working constituency MP."

The Labour MP, who was born in London in 1971, said coming from the humble roots "is a big challenge".

In a House of 650, Parmjit is one of the 12 'non-white' MPs of whom six are of Asian origin.

Asked about the Gujarat riots, he said, "Gujarat is a massive area of concern." Though pre-dominantly a constituency inhabited by 'whites', there is presence of some Muslims and Hindus mainly from Gujarat.

Parmjit, who has effectively contributed to debates on international terrorism, rebelled on the Iraq issue. "It was one the hardest things to do in my political career," he said.

"I was clear that we need a second UN resolution authorising any military action and we should wait for it," he said.

PTI