I was saddened to hear of the death of my friend Sehdev Bismal MBE.

Sehdev played a very important leadership role in the inter faith movement in Wolverhampton. The work done by him and his colleagues is a big part of the reason why the city enjoys such good community relations today. These things don’t happen by accident. They happen because people show leadership and are determined to display in our daily lives the fact that we have more in common than anything which sets us apart.

He was also, along with his good friend Dennis Turner, a pioneer of the Fair Trade movement in the city. He worked hard to make Wolverhampton a Fair Trade city and took great pride in the adoption of fair trade standards in the big public institutions in Wolverhampton like the city council and the University.