Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesiਤਨਮਨਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਢੇਸੀ

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (born 17 August 1978) is a British politician from Slough, of Punjabi Sikh family origin, who in 2017 became the first turban wearing Sikh elected to the UK Parliament. A former mayor of Gravesham with degrees from UCL, Oxford and Cambridge, he has represented Slough since 2017 and chairs the House of Commons Defence Committee.

Slough-born, schooled partly in Punjab

Dhesi was born in Slough, Berkshire, on 17 August 1978, to Indian immigrant parents. His father, Jaspal Singh Dhesi, built a construction business and served as president of the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend, one of the largest gurdwaras in the United Kingdom, and the presidency came alongside years of voluntary service in the local Sikh community. Unusually for a British-born child, much of Tan's primary schooling took place in Punjab, giving him a grounding in the language and culture of his family's homeland before he returned to Britain at the age of nine. That early education in Punjab is something he still draws on: he is fluent in Punjabi and familiar with eight languages in total.

Three degrees, a building firm and the council chamber

Dhesi read mathematics with management studies at University College London, then took a master's degree in applied statistics at Keble College, Oxford, and an MPhil in the history and politics of South Asia at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. At Cambridge his MPhil focused on the history and politics of South Asia, the region his parents had left, an unusual grounding for a future British minister. He then ran his own construction company, based in Scotland, following his father into the building trade. Local politics came alongside the business: he served on Gravesham Borough Council from 2007 to 2015 and, in 2011, became Mayor of Gravesham, a role rarely held by someone so young. He also sat on Kent County Council from 2017 to 2019. His first attempt at Parliament, in Gravesham in 2015, ended in second place.

How did Tan Dhesi become Britain's first turbaned MP?

In the 2017 general election Dhesi was selected for Slough, his home town, and won with 62.9 percent of the vote. His victory made history: he was the first turban wearing Sikh to sit in the House of Commons, his orange dastar a new sight on the green benches, and Indian and Punjabi media celebrated the result on both sides of the world. He was re-elected in 2019 with 57.6 percent and again in 2024, when a changed political map cut his share to 33.9 percent but still returned him with a majority of 3,647. In opposition he held a run of Labour front bench roles, including shadow minister for railways and shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, having earlier served as parliamentary private secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, a post of trust at the centre of the party.

Chairing the Defence Committee

In September 2024 Dhesi was elected chair of the Defence Select Committee, the powerful Commons committee that scrutinises the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces. He was the first Sikh and the first Punjabi to chair a select committee, and the first MP from an ethnic minority background to be elected to chair this one. Before that he had served on the committee as a member and as a UK delegate to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. His community work has included spearheading the campaign for a national Sikh war memorial, honouring the Sikh soldiers who served Britain in two world wars, and chairing the all-party parliamentary group for the western rail link to Heathrow.

What Tan Dhesi represents

Dhesi's career joins two stories that rarely meet: the classroom in Punjab and the committee rooms of Westminster. A Slough-born son of immigrants who spent part of his childhood at school in Punjab, he rose through council chambers and three universities to one of the most senior scrutiny roles in Parliament, all while keeping the turban that marks his Sikh faith. Slough itself is home to one of the largest Punjabi communities in Britain, and Dhesi is its own son representing it in Parliament. For Punjabi families in Slough, Gravesend and far beyond, his presence at the head of the Defence Committee table is a landmark in the community's British journey.