Parmjit Singh Gill
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Parmjit_Singh_Gill.jpg
Parmjit Singh Gill (B. 1967) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was Member of Parliament for Leicester South from 2004 to 2005. He was the first ever ethnic minority Liberal Democrat MP.
He joined the party in 1994, he serves as a councillor for the Stoneygate Ward in Leicester, and was the Liberal Democrats' candidate for the Leicester South by-election on July 15, 2004. He had previously contested the seat at the 2001 election, coming 3rd. At the 2005 general election the seat was contested again, but this time the Labour Party candidate, Peter Soulsby, took the seat, leaving Gill 2nd.
He works as a local authority Information Management and Security Consultant for Charnwood Borough Council.
Parmjit Singh Gill's close links to the taxi trade have now landed him in trouble. Leicester City Council has submitted a complaint to the Standards Board for England after the Lib-Dem MP, who is also a city councillor, allegedly "bullied and intimidated" two female officers trying to carry out random safety checks on cabs. Gill turned up at a testing centre on the evening of Friday 1st October after a driver appealed to him to prevent his cab being taken off the road. The MP and a taxi union rep - Parmjit's uncle, Sital Singh Gill - intemperately demanded that the licensing officer should allow the cabbie to continue driving over the lucrative weekend. The driver was allowed back on the road, on condition his car was put in for repairs on the following Monday. Gill subsequently backed city centre protests by drivers who argued that random checks on busy Fridays and Saturdays were "unfair". Neither Gill nor the drivers mentioned that four of the 40 cabs inspected on the night of his bust-up were taken off the road for dodgy brakes and faulty steering columns.
However, as reported in the local press (Leicester Mercury - see external links), Parmjit Singh Gill was cleared of the charges.
External links
- Leicester Liberal Democrats (http://www.leicester-libdems.org.uk/) official site
- Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Parmjit Singh Gill (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-6766,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Parmjit Gill MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/?pid=11361)
- Leicester Mercury report exhonerating Parmjit Singh Gill (http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132407&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132390&contentPK=12146279&moduleName=InternalSearch&keyword=singh%20gill&formname=sidebarsearch)