Kanishka Narayan made history in the July 2024 general election when he won the Vale of Glamorgan seat for Labour, becoming the first British Indian MP to be elected from Wales. A proud resident of Barry – made famous by the popular BBC sitcom ‘Gavin and Stacey’, Narayan also leads the parliamentary drive to build closer UK-India ties as Vice-Chair of the Labour Indians group.
Here, the India-born MP reflects on his busy few months in Parliament, his vision for the diaspora living bridge and delivering the change that people voted for.
How do you feel about your first few months as a new MP?
It's been brilliant. It was a change election, and I feel like we've started on the mission of delivering on that change for the country. It feels optimistic and exciting. It also feels similar to what I felt in the campaign, that there is a huge amount to do to fix both our economic and our public services context. So, the scale of the challenge is material to that. But primarily I feel hopeful, very excited that we are on the task of delivering change for the next five years.
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How do you see the UK-India relationship developing under Labour?
I lead the parliamentary effort for the Labour Indians group and a big part of what we're focused on is making sure that the voice of British Indians, but also our passion for a deep UK-India connection burns very strongly within the Labour Party and is a source of impact, not just on public policy, but on a broader set of values that we as a party stand for that I think we share very deeply with the British Indian community – values of working hard, pursuing economic opportunity, doing the right and fair thing when it comes to both immigration and also our social context. Those are the things I've grown up with in the British Indian community.
How does your Indian heritage inspire you in your work?
I was born in Bihar, eastern India, so mangoes and lychees are a fundamental part of my genetic makeup. I carry a huge amount of fondness for India, not just the food and cultural context, but through family relationships as well.
We moved to the UK when I was quite young with my parents and my brother because we thought it would be a place that offered us economic opportunity and the chance to build a dignified life together. It has done all of that and more. And so, one of the things I'm passionate about is talking about the UK-India connection, both in terms of public policy and foreign policy but really fundamentally in terms of the impact it has on the millions of people who go between our countries each year.
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Finally, tell us about your hometown of Barry in Wales.
I'm really fortunate to represent a constituency that is a coastal constituency. We've got amazing beaches. A lot of people live there because the natural landscape, the green spaces and the water at the coast is incredibly beautiful.
It's a fabulous place to grow up and to live in, and that's a huge part of what attracts people there. And I'm really proud of retaining that beauty and identity of the location. It is also a place with a really rich and exciting cultural heritage, in particular ‘Gavin and Stacey’.