Nandy was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Wigan in February 2010 from an all-women shortlist.[14] Elected to parliament on 7 May 2010,she became the constituency's first female MP and one of the first Asian female MPs.[15][16][17] Nandy was elected with a majority of 10,487,receiving 48.5% of the vote.[18][19]
Nandy was re-elected as the MP for Wigan at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 14,236,and increased her share of the vote to 52.2%.[25] Following Labour's general election defeat and Ed Miliband's subsequent resignation as party leader,there was some speculation in the media that Nandy would stand in the leadership election.[26] Nandy declined and endorsed Andy Burnham.[27] In August 2015,Owen Jones said that he encouraged Nandy to run for the leadership,but the recent birth of her son prevented it.[28][29]
In September 2015,it was announced that Nandy had been appointed to serve as Shadow Energy Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet.[30]Along with many colleagues,she resigned from her post in June 2016.[31] In the wake of these resignations,Nandy was approached by Labour MPs who wanted her to stand against Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership election. MPs felt that Nandy and eventual candidate Owen Smith were soft left politicians who could win the leadership. Nandy declined to stand and instead served as co-chair of Smith's campaign team.[32]
After the election resulted in Corbyn's re-election,Nandy announced that she did not intend to return to the frontbench without the re-introduction of Shadow Cabinet elections,which had been abolished by Ed Miliband in 2011 (the last election being held in 2010). She also spoke of the abuse she had received for not supporting Corbyn,which she described as leaving her "genuinely frightened". She compared her treatment to that which she had received at the hands of the far-right when she first campaigned to become MP for Wigan in 2010.[33]
In 2017,Nandy was mentioned in The Guardian and The Telegraph as someone from the left wing of the party who could replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader before the 2017 general election,[34][35] At the 2017 general election,Nandy was re-elected as the MP for Wigan with an increased majority of 16,027,and an increased vote share of 62.2%.[25]
In 2018,Nandy set up the Centre for Towns,with data analytics expert Ian Warren. The Centre for Towns billed itself as an "independent non-partisan organisation dedicated to providing research and analysis of our towns".[36] At the end of 2018 Nandy became the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.[37]
At the 2019 general election,Nandy was re-elected as the MP for Wigan,this time with a decreased majority of 6,728 and a decreased vote share of 46.7%.[38]
On 4 September 2023 she was appointed Shadow International Development minister by Keir Starmer.[39]
In January 2020, Nandy wrote a letter to the Wigan Post[40] outlining her intention to stand to succeed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2020 leadership election, saying that she wanted to "bring Labour home" to its traditional strongholds.[41][42]
On 16 January 2020, during the Labour leadership election, Nandy said that demands for Scottish independence could be overcome with a "social justice agenda", saying that there were times in the past when that had quelled nationalist movements in Catalonia and Quebec. She was criticised by several Scottish National Party politicians, who pointed to police violence and the jailing of politicians during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum to refute her point. In a blog post, Nandy said that police violence in Catalonia was unjustified, and that socialists opposed to separatism "may yet win out".[43][44][45][46]
On 21 January 2020, Lisa Nandy was endorsed by the GMB union, which praised her "ambition, optimism, and decisive leadership".[47] In February, she won the endorsement of the Jewish Labour Movement, receiving the backing of 51% of JLM members.[48] Nandy came third in the contest, receiving 79,597 votes (16.2% of the vote share).[49]
In March 2021, Nandy made her first foreign policy speech at Chatham House. Nandy said her priorities would include national security, Russian aggression and climate change.[51]
Politico has stated that she is on the "centre left" of the Labour party, and is a "clear break from Corbynism".[61] The Conservative MP Paul Bristow has said that Nandy is "refreshingly untribal".[62] Nandy's fellow Labour Party MP Jon Cruddas has stated that Nandy is on the "authentic soft left" of the party.[63]
In 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965.[70] Nandy, in a letter to UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK position "is damaging to Britain's reputation, undermines your credibility and moral authority and sets a damaging precedent that others may seize upon to undermine UK national interests, and those of our allies, in other contexts or maritime disputes".[71]
On the issue of the Trump presidency, Nandy has said that the UK should "engage" with Donald Trump, to "have the argument" with him.[72] She has also stated that she would oppose signing a trade deal with the US unless it ratifies the Paris Agreement, which the US withdrew from under Trump's presidency.[65]
Personal life
Nandy's partner, Andy Collis, is a public relations consultant. She has a son, born in April 2015 at Wigan Infirmary Hospital.[73][74]
↑ Brief previously covered by Reed as Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary and Lucy Powell as Shadow Housing Secretary.
↑ As Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.
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