At Westminster he impressed during an eight-year stint on the Home Affairs Select Committee, and in the run-up to the 2010 election was PPS to the Home Office immigration minister Phil Woolas.

Marsha Singh was born on October 11 1954. His family moved to Bradford, where he attended Belle Vue Boys' School, captaining the chess team. Winning a place at Loughborough University, he gained an honours degree in the Languages, Politics and Economics of Modern Europe.

Singh joined Lloyds Bank as a graduate trainee, but was keen to undertake community work in his adoptive home city and in 1979 went to work for Bradford Community Relations Council. A year later he joined the Bradford Law Centre, and in 1983 he moved to the city's Directorate of Education. From 1990 until his election as an MP, he was senior development manager at Bradford Community Health Trust.