Three PIO MEPs elected to EU Parliament from the UK

LONDON: There will be at least three PIO British MEPs taking seats in the ninth European Parliament. Claude Moraes and Neena Gill, the first ever Indian-origin MEPs elected in 1999, both kept their seats and a new face emerged of self-made multimillionaire Dinesh Dhamija.
By Monday with 11 of 12 regions declared, Dhamija, 69, son of late Indian diplomat Jagan Nath Dhamija, had become an MEP for the Liberal Democrats. He is one of eight MEPs who will represent London, where his party topped the polls, one of only two regions in Britain to beat the Brexit Party.
Educated at Mayo College, Ajmer and St Xavier’s School in Delhi, Dhamija made his millions when he sold his internet travel company eBookers in 2005. “The reason why I stood is because of the hate crimes against Asians in the aftermath of the EU referendum 2016. Until then I had been doing back office work for the Lib Dems and that is why I wanted to stand on the frontline,” he said.
“As part of the EU, which has GDP worth US$ 18 trillion a year, we have much better negotiating power than as the UK with just US$3 trillion. The Brexit Party did not win in London and London produces 30 per cent of the UK’s GDP,” Dhamija added.
Born in Australia, he read law at Cambridge and studied at IMD in Lausanne and Harvard Business School. “I will try and help India too,” he said.
Ludhiana-born Gill, 62, who moved to the UK aged 10, was the only Labour MEP to keep her seat in the West Midlands. She said she would continue to work on improving dialogue between the EU and India, on combating climate change, human rights and democracy.
Moraes, 53, the EU Parliament’s sixth most influential MEP, was born in Yemen to Mangalorean parents, and spent a few years in Mumbai, before being raised in Scotland. He said he hoped to continue his role as chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the biggest committee in the Parliament.