As the fight for the Labour leadership goes on, Jeremy Corbyn’s rival has been reaching out to more communities to get his word out.
During a campaign to Birmingham, which has a very high proportion of Asians, including Sikhs, the budding political star vowed to get more Sikhs into Parliament.
The speech came during a visit to the Ramgharia Sikh Temple in the Jewellery Quarter where Owen met with prominent Sikh community leaders and members of the Labour party.
Tackling inequality is one of Smith’s main priorities. Currently, there are 500,000 Sikh’s in the UK with 134,000 in the Midlands alone. None of which are MP’s. There are a mere three Sikh’s in the House of Lords- none of them Labour.
Gurinder Joshan, a member of Sikhs4Owen, said “we are pleased that Mr. Smith has recognised this is an issue and that given the significant role Sikhs play in society, something needs to be done about it and the House of Lords would be good start.”
Recently, Owen came under fire during a debate against Corbyn in Cardiff. When claiming he wanted unity within the Labour party, Corbyn cried hypocrisy by bringing up his resigning from the shadow cabinet, prompting massive cheers.
Owen Smith has also called for a national vote before Brexit goes into action and has urged for a new Industrial Revolution regarding green energy.