Tan Dhesi has said he is ‘immensely grateful’ to have been re-elected as Slough’s Labour MP at the general election.

Mr Dhesi won the election with 14,666 votes – 33.76 per cent of the total number of votes cast. It came after a hotly fought contest with closest rival Azhar Chohan of the Independent Network and nine other candidates.

Mr Dhesi told the Observer: “I’m immensely grateful to the good people of Slough for having once again bestowed their trust and confidence, their faith in me to serve them as their elected member of parliament.”

The win in Slough came as Labour looked on course to win a landslide victory in the general election nationally – replacing the Conservative Party in government after almost 15 years.

READ MORE: Tan Dhesi holds Slough for Labour

Mr Dhesi said people in Slough had voted for a change in government, and that he would be part of it.

He said: “My job now will be to ensure that I work very, very hard on their behalf not just in Slough – to deal with their casework, their individual issues – but also that I work hard as part of a future Labour government to deliver meaningful change for our country.

“We know there are so many things not right with our country, whether it’s the crisis in our NHS, whether it’s in terms of our economy not working for everybody, whether it’s the cost of living crisis.

“It is the job of a Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer to deliver upon our manifesto to ensure that everybody has a better fairer, brighter future.”

But the results in Slough also suggested it had been a tougher campaign for Labour.

Independent Network candidate Azhar Chohan cut deep into Mr Dhesi’s majority, winning 11,019 votes. He ran a campaign that mixed strong support for Palestine with wider frustrations at Labour in Slough.

Mr Dhesi won 29,421 votes in 2019 – 13,640 more than his closest rival the Conservative candidate. This time he has just 3,647 more votes than independent Mr Chohan in second place.

Turnout in Slough also dropped to its lowest level in 19 years. Some 53.4 per cent of voters turned out in Slough. That’s the lowest since 2005, which had a turnout of just 50.5 per cent in Slough.

Mr Dhesi said the turnout suggested people had lost faith in politics. He told the Observer: “If we look at how many people have not voted that shows to me that I need to work very, very hard to ensure that those individuals have their faith in politics, in the system, re-instilled.

“Because of the various scandals engulfing this Conservative government a lot of people didn’t turn out to vote.”

He added: “There’s a lot of anger and exasperation out there – whether it’s what is going on in the country, whether it’s what is going on internationally.

“We need to work to ensure that people’s problems here are solved as well as to have a more peaceful and more prosperous globe.”