Gill was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. She emigrated to the United Kingdom with her family when she was ten years old. Her father was a businessman. Gill's first job was working in a library at the age of 16. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in social studies from Liverpool John Moores University in 1979. She was vice president of the students union. Gill later gained a postgraduate professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Housing in 1984 and in 1996, she completed the senior executive programme at the London Business School. After graduation, Gill became a trainee accountant but only worked for six weeks before leaving to become a housing officer at Ealing London Borough Council. Aged 29, Gill became the chief executive of ASRA Group, making her the first female, first non-white and youngest chief executive of a UK housing association. She then worked as the chief executive of Newlon Housing Group.
Prior to Labour's electoral success in 1997, Gill worked with members of Labour's shadow cabinet to help develop the party's social policy. In 1999, she was elected as the first female Asian MEP in the European Parliament. Representing the West Midlands between 1999 and 2009, Gill held various positions, including President of the Delegation for Relations with India and President of the Delegation for Relations with South Asia and SAARC countries. She was also a member of The Legal Affairs Committee and of the Budgets Committee. Gill was unsuccessful in her bid to be re-elected for a third term as MEP in 2009. During her time outside of parliament, she worked as the vice president for corporate affairs for software company SAS. In 2014, she was re-elected as one of two Labour MEPs for the West Midlands. During this term, she was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, special committee on tax rulings, financial crimes, tax evasion and avoidance, and part of the delegation for relations with India and the United States. She was particularly active on financial regulation and was the rapporteur for the 2015 European Money Market Funds Regulation. In 2017, Gill was one of two UK winners of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the highest honour given to NRIs by the Indian government. In the same year, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours. In July 2018, Gill became an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University. She was re-elected in the 2019 European parliamentary election as the sole Labour MEP for the West Midlands. Gill remained a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In September 2019, Gill joined the delegation for relations with Japan as Chair and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly as Vice-Chair and S&D Co-ordinator.
Personal life
She married Dr. John Towner, an environmental consultant, in 1982 and they have one son. They divorced in 2009.
