On the final weekend of campaigning ahead of the UK general election on Thursday, both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the man who is fighting for his job at 10 Downing Street – Labour Leader Keir Starmer, have hit the temple trail to woo British Hindu voters.
While 44-year-old Sunak was at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden on Sunday to promise to keep trying to “make the community proud”, 61-year-old Starmer chose another north London Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury on Friday to reiterate his commitment to building a “strategic partnership with India”.
The move follows a ‘Hindu Manifesto’ being launched by an umbrella group of British Hindu organisations for the first time ahead of a British general election, calling on elected representatives to take proactive steps to protect Hindu places of worship and tackle anti-Hindu hate.
“This mandir stands as a great statement of the contributions that this community makes to Britain,” said Sunak, in his speech at the iconic Neasden Temple, where he offered prayers and sought blessings from the elderly in the gathering.
“Education, hard work, family, those are my values. Those are your values. Those are Conservative values,” he declared in his election pitch.
Meanwhile, Starmer was welcomed to the tunes of an India-Scottish pipe band at the Kingsbury Temple, where he also began his speech in the same way as Sunak with “Jai Swaminarayan”.
“If we’re elected next week, we will strive to govern in the spirit of sewa to serve you and a world in need,” said the Labour Leader, reiterating a previous message that there is “absolutely no place for Hinduphobia in Britain