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4 Indian-origin figures granted political peerage in UK
The appointees, upon swearing in, will be conferred honorary titles and be allowed to sit and vote in the House of Lords.
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Anushka Pathak - Thu, 11, Dec 2025
- 12:49 EST
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(Top) L-R: Geeta Nargund, Neena Gill; (Bottom) L-R: Shama Tatler, Uday Nagaraju / Courtesy: geeta-nargund.com, Facebook; @LGA_Labour/X, @bandisanjay_bjp/X
Four individuals of Indian origin have been granted life peerages to the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, the Prime Minister’s office announced on Dec. 10.
Recommended by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and formally approved by King Charles III, the four appointed life peers include Uday Nagaraju, Geeta Nargund, Neena Gill, and Shama Tatler.
The appointments underscore Labour’s stated aim of increasing diversity and specialist expertise in the unelected second chamber that scrutinizes legislation passed by the House of Commons.
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Uday Nagaraju, a computer engineer, founded AI Policy Labs, which works on applying artificial intelligence to governance, agriculture, and gender-related challenges.
He contested the Chiswick Gunnersbury council seat in 2022 and later stood for North Bedfordshire in the general election, where he secured second place and expanded his national profile. Born in Shanigaram village in Telangana’s former Karimnagar district, he has become the first peer from the state.
Geeta Nargund, a London-based fertility specialist, has dedicated her career to advancing reproductive health and healthcare equity. Born to Indian parents, she trained as a gynecologist in the UK and founded Create Fertility in 2004, pioneering natural and mild IVF protocols.
Author of over 100 publications, she has shaped global fertility guidelines and established the Health Equality Foundation to tackle disparities in women’s health among ethnic minorities and low-income groups. Nargund has advised the World Health Organization and advocates ethical use of AI in medicine.
Neena Gill, born in Punjab and raised in the UK from age 10, becomes the first female Sikh peer on Labour's House of Lords benches. At 29 she became the youngest and first non-white female chief executive of a major housing association.
She served as a Labour Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2009 and 2014 to 2020, chairing the EU-Japan delegation and vice-chairing the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Recipient of the CBE (2017) and India’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, she contested Bromsgrove in 2024. Gill is a trustee of Lumos and a prominent advocate for child welfare and diversity.
Councillor Shama Tatler has been a leading figure in London local government since 2014. Elected in Brent’s Fryent Ward, she rose to cabinet member for regeneration, property, and planning, delivering major projects including the award-winning South Kilburn estate regeneration and Wembley Park developments.
She serves as vice-chair of the London Labour Regional Executive, patron of the Labour Housing Group, and head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association. A member of the Jewish Labour Movement and vice-chair of Labour Indians, she contested the 2024 Chingford and Woodford Green parliamentary seat.
The appointees, upon swearing in, will be conferred honorary titles and be allowed to sit and vote in the House of Lords (the UK's upper legislative chamber), recognizing their service or contributions.
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