Monty Panesar to stand as parliamentary candidate in UK general election

Former England spinner Monty Panesar will stand as a parliamentary candidate for George Galloway's Workers Party at the next general election.

Panesar, who was born in Luton and played 50 Tests for England, taking 167 wickets at 34.71, will be on the ballot in Ealing Southall. The constituency has been a Labour Party stronghold under Vivendra Sharma since 2007. Sharma currently holds a majority of over 16,000 in a constituency whose population, according to the 2021 Census, is almost one-third (30 per cent) Asian.

"I want to be the voice for the workers of this country," Panesar said in a column in The Telegraph. "My aspiration in politics is to one day become Prime Minister, where I would make Britain a safer and stronger nation. But the first job at hand is to represent the people of Ealing Southall."

Galloway returned to the House of Commons in March after victory in the Rochdale by-election, following the death of the previous incumbent, Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd. Speaking on Tuesday morning, Galloway confirmed Panesar, 42, will be unveiled as one of his party's candidates at a press event outside the Houses of Parliament.

Speaking to LBC, Galloway said: "I'll present 200 of them outside Parliament this afternoon, including - you'll like this - Monty Panesar, the ace Indian cricketer, former England international cricketer, who will be our candidate in Southall."

"Monty, of course, was a great left-arm spinner and so we could do with him".

Panesar, whose full name is Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, became the first practising Sikh to represent England in 2006, when selected at Nagpur in the first Test of that winter's tour of India.

Following his retirement, he undertook a sports journalism course at St Mary's University, London, and earlier this month leant his support to the Show Racism the Red Card campaign, in which he talked up the benefits of immigration in a video.

In 2021, he defended Michael Vaughan, his former England captain, after he was accused of using racist language towards Azeem Rafiq during a match for Yorkshire in 2009.