London: Lisa Nandy, an Indian-origin woman MP has called on the Labour party to be “brave” and elect her. Nandy comfortably progressed to the second round of the Labour Party’s leadership race this week.
She ranks third in a five-way race, which is led by shadow Brexit secretary Kier Starmer followed by current leader Jeremy Corbyn loyalist Rebecca Long-Bailey, the media reported. “This is the moment when we up our game and recover our ambition. So I am asking you to make the brave, not the easy choice, in this leadership contest,” Nandy was quoted as saying.
Born in Manchester to a British mother and Indian father, she won her Wigan seat in the north-west of England in last month’s General Election, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party won a landslide with the help of traditional Labour Party voters across the region.
Under the Labour Party rules, the final five will now have to pass the next hurdle of gaining nominations from at least 33 constituency Labour parties or three affiliates, of which two must be trade unions, representing at least 5 percent of affiliate membership. At this stage, Starmer is the clear favorite to be on that final ballot paper but the race between Nandy and Long-Bailey is what will be the one to watch.
Nandy has served as a former shadow energy secretary in Corbyn’s team before stepping down after the Brexit referendum in 2016 in protest at the party’s unclear stance on the UK’s EU membership.
