Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of former Bradford MP Marsha Singh yesterday.

The city’s first Asian MP represented Bradford West for the Labour Party from 1997 until his retirement due to ill health in March this year.

His death at the age of 57 on July 17 came after the seat he held for 15 years was won in the March Parliamentary by-election by George Galloway , overturning Mr Singh’s majority of 5,763 at the 2010 General Election.

The shock of the Respect Party’s victory prompted Labour Leader Ed Miliband to visit Bradford in April, to ask what went wrong.

Mr Miliband could not attend the funeral, but sent Mr Singh’s widow, Kildip Mann, a handwritten letter of “deep condolences”, which was read at the service at Scholemoor Cemetery.

Several hundred people attended, many of them Sikhs in headscarves as a mark of respect.

Mr Singh’s friend from boyhood and former Asian Youth Movement colleague Idris Bashir said at least 14 MPs were present. They included Bradford South Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe and Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP David Ward.

Bradford’s first Asian Lord Mayor Mohammed Ajeeb, the current Lord Mayor, Conservative Councillor Dale Smith , and the leader of Bradford Council, Councillor David Green , were also there.

Those who gave tributes were Ramindar Singh, deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Satham Gill, a friend, Mr Ajeeb, Kirat Marsha, Mr Singh’s grand-daughter, and former Telegraph & Argus journalist Peter Carroll.

Each in turn recalled aspects of Mr Singh’s life and character – his passion for chess, his love of Latin and German at Belle Vue Boys School, his charisma, kindness and generosity.

Mr Ajeeb said he was glad he persuaded him to join the Labour Party and acclaimed him as a man of “conviction, a man of principles, never afraid of anyone, who spoke his mind”.

The service, which began in a shower of rain, ended in a burst of sunlight, as though affirming the final line of Marsha Singh’s poem read out by his grand-daughter Kirat: “Life never ends, it only changes.”

e-mail: jim.greenhalf@telegraphandargus.co.uk