Preet Kaur Gill

Preet Kaur Gill (born 21 November 1972) is a British Labour Co-operative politician. She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston since the 2017 general election. She is the first female British Sikh MP.

Early life
Preet Kaur Gill was born on 21 November 1972 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, to Daljeet Singh Shergill and Kuldeep Kaur Shergill. Her father was a foreman and later a bus driver and her mother worked as a seamstress. Daljeet Singh was the longest serving president of the Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick. Gill credits her father and Lord King (first Sikh life peer in the House of Lords) as her main inspiration for her ambition to enter politics.

She has six younger siblings. Her early education was at Lordswood Girls' School and Bournville College. At the latter Gill was elected as student president. Gill graduated from the University of East London with a first class BSc. degree in Sociology and Social Work. After graduating, she worked as a social worker in a kibbutz in Israel and with street children in India. She was elected as a councillor for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in 2012 and was re-elected in the 2016 local election. On the council she has served as the Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection. Gill supported remaining within the European Union (EU) in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Parliamentary career
Gill was selected by the Labour Party to contest the Birmingham Edgbaston seat on 28 April 2017. Her selection followed the constituency's previous Labour MP Gisela Stuart decision not to seek re-election. Stuart had represented Birmingham Edgbaston since 1997. In the 2017 general election, Gill stood as the Labour and Co-operative candidate and was elected as MP with 24,124 (55.3%) votes and a majority of 6,917 (15.8%). She is the first female British Sikh MP. In July, she was elected as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Gill is the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mentoring and Sikhs. On 12 January 2018, she was appointed to the shadow cabinet as International Development Minister (role shared with Dan Carden).

Personal life
Preet has been married to Sureash Singh Chopra since 2009 and they have two daughters. He works as a social worker. In addition to her parliamentary duties, Gill continues to be a councillor on the Sandwell council as well as a non executive director for the Spring Housing Association.