MP: I am British first and foremost

The Black Country-born Sikh MP in the constituency once represented by Enoch Powell, thinks members of other diverse communities should consider themselves British first.

He wants second and third generation descendants of immigrants to celebrate Britishness, in the way he believes many American immigrants are proud first and foremost to live under the stars and stripes.

But he also believes that as the son of East African Sikh immigrants, with a Christian first name and a Sikh surname, it is easier for him to say this than for his white Tory colleagues.

"That's the problem," he said. "By me saying it, I hope my other colleagues are prepared to say it too."

Of course it is no wonder why there are Conservatives who might think carefully about saying such things in the Black Country.

Mr Uppal is MP for Wolverhampton South West, a seat formerly held by Mr Powell who gave the infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968.

His slender 691 majority, won in 2010, is exactly the same as Mr Powell's in his first election in 1950.

That speech defined the debate on immigration for decades. And even as recently as last year, it was brought up by Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable to criticise David Cameron's rhetoric on immigration.

For the British Asian MP in Enoch Powell's old seat, things have certainly come a very long way since.

A member of the Number 10 policy board that advises the Prime Minister, Mr Uppal is acutely aware of the struggle the Conservatives face to stay in power next year.

He is one of less than a dozen minority ethnic Tories in the Commons and the furthest north in terms of his constituency.

Mr Uppal has previously called for the party to do more to 'look like' the people of modern Britain they represent, but without resorting to 'tokenism'.

And now he thinks the different communities themselves need to talk about immigration and identity as much as politicians.

"It's important for community leaders to talk about this too," said the Smethwick-born 47-year-old.

"We can and should celebrate our different cultures.

"It's one of the things that saw the Olympics come to London in 2012 – all these different people living side by side.

"But there has to be a central theme of Britishness, of our values of tolerance and fairness. Politicians have been loathe to stress it. And I think it's left a vacuum."

He suggests it plays its part in some young people going off the rails.

"What gets exposed when there are cases of minority ethnic gangs is they're used as a euphemism for 'family'. They provide a male role model because of a vacuum felt by young men."

He believes the recent surge in support for UKIP has exposed concern about immigration.

"But it's beyond that," he said. "People want a sense of their communities and central to that is the theme of Britishness.

"When Enoch gave his speech in 1968 he almost closed down the debate on what it means to be British. We've had generations of people born here to immigrant families – just as I was.

"I declare myself British first. Some don't. There's an overriding theme for some that they want that sense of being Indian first."

He says when his family came gratefully to Britain, as East African Asians fleeing persecution, that 'no-one else wanted us'.

But Mr Uppal himself spent some time at his school in Northfield, Birmingham, sitting at the back of the class with everyone believing he could not speak English.

A 10-minute conversation with a teacher changed that and put him on the path to university, running a business and eventually entering the House of Commons.

There was, of course, resentment in 1970s Birmingham. He recalled: "I used to get people say 'why don't you go home' and I didn't understand because I only lived 200 yards away, so where did they want me to go?

"What strikes me about this sense of identity is when I've been to America, you get people playing Arabic music while they're at work but they have the stars and stripes flying.

"Yet we have some young people who want to go overseas and join extremists. If you're born here, why wouldn't you want to be British?"

He thinks Labour did the right thing in bringing in citizenship ceremonies.

"We have a long heritage in Wolverhampton of being open to everyone," he said. "But we expect people to buy in to the rules and put their shoulder to the wheel. Community leaders need to talk about this."

Mr Uppal has seen what he considers to be shining examples of communities pulling together. He is especially proud of how in 2011, the trustees of the Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji Sikh temple in Wolverhampton donated £5,000 to the development of the atrium at Springdale Methodist Church and Community Centre.

He does not believe it needs Parliament to pass any laws to get people to celebrate their Britishness, or instruct schools to hoist the flag for children to pledge allegiance.

Mr Uppal added: "I am British first and foremost. But the values I have are not just British values, or even Indian values. They're just common sense values. We need to discuss immigration and look at what it really means to be British – not just for immigrants, but for everyone."