VOTED IN: Valerie Vaz at her campaign headquarters at Walsall South

Valerie Vaz will remember the night of May 6 as one of the longest in her life. As the counting of votes began, she was fighting not just to win her first seat in British Parliament, but to get into the record books. Her victory would decide if she and her brother, Keith Vaz, Labour member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East, could become the first brother and sister duo to hold seats from the same party at the same time.

In the early hours of the morning, as Britain headed for a hung parliament and candidates fought what is being described as the closest election in British history, she won, and they made it.

The 40-something Valerie (she is hesitant to give her age) is delighted. “It’s brilliant,” she says, tired but happy. She has not slept for nearly 24 hours but the adrenalin is still flowing. In fact, she is looking for another record.

Though she is the first woman of Indian origin to become a Labour MP, Valerie is hoping to emerge as the first Asian woman to take a seat in the House of Commons, in the footsteps of her brother who was Britain’s first Asian MP in 1987. That record, however, depends on luck, since a few other Asian women candidates have won seats this time.

“Technically you are not an MP till you have been sworn in,” laughed Valerie. “So whoever is sworn in first will get there first.”

It’s a record she’s coveted for a long time. After all, records run in the family. Her mother Merlyn Vaz was the first Asian woman councillor in Leicester. She and her husband Xavier, who worked with The Times of India in Bombay, moved with the family to Britain in the Seventies. Valerie was brought up in Leicester, with her two siblings, sister Penny and brother Keith. The Vaz siblings studied law and became barristers, with Keith and Valerie opting for politics.

She contested her first election in 1983 but lost. So Valerie opted for local council politics and became a councillor. Despite her experience in politics and being the sister of a high-profile parliamentarian, she struggled for nearly 20 years to get a seat as a parliamentary candidate. It was only after the sitting MP from Walsall South, Bruce George, stepped down this year after 35 years in office that Valerie got her chance. Situated 16 kilometres north of Birmingham, Walsall South has an ethnic minority population of 26 per cent, comprising Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis.

“It just goes to show how hard it is to get selected for a seat,” says Valerie, who has worked as a civil servant in London for the last eight years. “I think India is far ahead in that respect. There are so many women parliamentarians.”

Almost as soon as the Labour party named her for the seat in March, Valerie got into the campaign trail. She left her London home in Chiswick where she lives with husband Paul Townsend, a deputy head teacher in a London school, and her 15-year-old daughter, Liberty India Rose, and headed for the constituency. She rented a house, made it her campaign headquarters and began what all candidates do in British elections: distribute leaflets, attend community centre meetings and knock on house doors.

With a little bit of help from Keith — who has acquired the reputation of bringing Bollywood stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty to his constituency of Leicester — she had Sanjay Dutt cheering up people in Walsall to the beat of dhols and bhangra dancers on a Saturday afternoon.

“The people of Walsall have never seen anything like it,” says Valerie. “There were all these screaming girls. He was completely mobbed. The police didn’t quite know what to do.”

Apart from bringing a bit of Bollywood glamour to the Midlands, Vaz says her campaign concerns were the same as that of every Labour politician: “Working on the issues such as health, education — and what is a big issue locally — immigration.” Foreign secretary in the outgoing government David Miliband came to her constituency to boost her campaign. Miliband is seen as a future Labour Party leader and Vaz demonstrated that she has the backing of the party high command.

To Valerie’s advantage, Walsall South has been a safe Labour seat. She won her seat with 16,211 votes, 1,755 votes ahead of her Conservative rival, Richard Hunt.

So how much of a role did Keith play in her campaign? “We are a very close family,” says Valerie. “He was behind me a hundred per cent.”

The family stays close to its Indian roots. Valerie, who has cousins in Goa, remembers the happy days that she spent on the beaches there in an age when crime was almost unheard of in the scenic state. “When we were kids we went to Anjuna beach and everything was very safe. The hippies kept to themselves. Goa was a very egalitarian place. The farms were co-operatives. I guess this is the downside of the development there. As always, it is about keeping the balance between society and jobs. I just hope that the wonderful laid-back attitude of the place does not change.”

At the moment, though, Valerie is savouring every moment of her hard-earned victory and looking forward to the days ahead when she will take her place on the benches of the House of Commons. And, of course, wondering about the order of the swearing-in ceremony.