Lisa Nandy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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_2.jpg) Official portrait, 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 5 July 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lucy Frazer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Parliament forWigan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Neil Turner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 9,549 (23.3%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Lisa Eva Nandy (1979-08-09)9 August 1979 (age 45) Manchester, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent |
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| Relatives | Frank Byers (maternal grandfather) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | lisanandy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a BritishLabour Party politician serving asSecretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024. She has served as theMember of Parliament (MP) for theWigan constituency since2010. Nandy previously served asShadow Foreign Secretary,Shadow Levelling Up Secretary,Shadow Energy Secretary andShadow International Development Minister.
Nandy wasparliamentary private secretary toTessa Jowell from 2010 to 2012,Shadow Minister for Children from 2012 to 2013, andShadow Minister for Charities and Civil Society from 2012 to 2015, with responsibility for Labour Policy on thevoluntary sector. She served asShadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2015, shadowingAmber Rudd, until she resigned in 2016 to co-chairOwen Smith's leadership challenge toJeremy Corbyn.
After a further four years as a backbench MP, Nandy stood as a candidate in the2020 Labour Party leadership election, coming in third place with 16.3% of the vote, behindKeir Starmer andRebecca Long-Bailey. Starmer subsequently appointed Nandy asShadow Foreign Secretary in April 2020. Following areshuffle in November 2021, Nandy was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Lisa Eva Nandy was born inManchester on 9 August 1979,[1][2] the daughter ofThe Hon. Luise (née Byers) and Marxist Indian academicDipak Nandy.[3][4][5][6]
Her maternal grandfatherFrank Byers was aLiberalMP who later became alife peer in theHouse of Lords. Lord Byers later served as theLeader of the Liberals in the House of Lords from 1967 to 1984.[7] Nandy grew up in both Manchester andBury.[8]
She was educated at the private, fee-paying Moor Allerton Preparatory School,[9] before going toParrs Wood High School, a co-educational comprehensive school inEast Didsbury in Manchester, followed byHoly Cross College in Bury.[10][1] She studied politics atNewcastle University, graduating in 2001, and obtained a master's degree in public policy fromBirkbeck, University of London.[1]
Nandy worked as a researcher and caseworker for theWalthamstow Labour MPNeil Gerrard.[11] After that, Nandy worked as a researcher at the homelessness charityCentrepoint from 2003 to 2005, and then as senior policy adviser atThe Children's Society from 2005 until her election in 2010, where she specialised in issues facing young refugees, also acting as adviser to theChildren's Commissioner for England and to theIndependent Asylum Commission.[3][12][13][14] She served as a Labour councillor for the Hammersmith Broadway ward onHammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council from 2006 to 2010.[1] As a councillor, she served as shadow cabinet member for housing.[8]
Nandy was selected as the Labourparliamentary candidate forWigan in February 2010 from anall-women shortlist.[15] At the2010 general election, Nandy was elected to Parliament as MP for Wigan with 48.5% of the vote and a majority of 10,487.[16][17]
She was appointed to theEducation Select Committee in July 2010 and was appointedparliamentary private secretary toTessa Jowell, the Shadow Olympics Minister, in October 2010.[18][19] In 2012, she succeededCatherine McKinnell asShadow Children and Young Families Minister.[20][21] In October 2013, she was appointed shadow charities minister.[22]
Nandy was re-elected as MP for Wigan at the2015 general election with an increased vote share of 52.2% and an increased majority of 14,236.[23] Following Labour'sgeneral election defeat andEd Miliband's subsequent resignation asparty leader, there was some speculation in the media that Nandy would stand in theleadership election.[24] Nandy declined and endorsedAndy Burnham.[25] In August 2015,Owen Jones said that he encouraged Nandy to run for the leadership, but the recent birth of her son prevented it.[26][27]
In September 2015, it was announced that Labour's new leaderJeremy Corbyn had appointed Nandy to serve asShadow Energy Secretary in theShadow Cabinet.[28]Along with many colleagues, she resigned from her post in June 2016.[29] In the wake of these resignations, Nandy was approached by Labour MPs who wanted her to stand against Jeremy Corbyn in aleadership election. MPs felt that Nandy and eventual candidateOwen Smith weresoft left politicians who could win the leadership. Nandy declined to stand and instead served as co-chair ofSmith's campaign team.[30]
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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 byEd Miliband in 2011 (thelast 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 thefar right when she first campaigned to become MP for Wigan in 2010.[31]
In 2017, Nandy was mentioned inThe Guardian andThe Telegraph as someone from the left wing of the party who could replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader before the2017 general election,[32][33] At the general election, Nandy was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 62.2% and an increased majority of 16,027.[34]
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".[35] At the end of 2018 Nandy became the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.[36]
At the2019 general election, Nandy was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 46.7% and a decreased majority of 6,728.[37]
On 4 September 2023 she was appointed Shadow International Development minister by Keir Starmer.[38]
Nandy was again re-elected at the2024 general election, with an increased majority of 9,549 and an increased vote share of 47.4%.[39]
In January 2020, Nandy wrote a letter to theWigan Post[40] outlining her intention to stand to succeed Jeremy Corbyn in the2020 leadership election, saying that she wanted to "bring Labour home" to its traditional strongholds.[41][42] The recentlandslide victory ofBoris Johnson'sConservative government included having won dozens of seats in many of Labour's historic heartland ("red wall") seats.
On 16 January 2020, during the Labour leadership election, Nandy said that demands forScottish independence could be overcome with a "social justice agenda", saying that there were times in the past when that had quelled nationalist movements inCatalonia andQuebec. She was criticised by severalScottish National Party politicians, who pointed to police violence and the jailing of politicians during the2017 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 theGMB union, which praised her "ambition, optimism, and decisive leadership".[47] In February, she won the endorsement of theJewish 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]
On 5 April 2020, Nandy was appointedShadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the newShadow Cabinet led byKeir Starmer.[50]
In March 2021, Nandy made her first foreign policy speech atChatham House. Nandy said her priorities would include national security,Russian aggression and climate change.[51]
On 29 November 2021, Nandy was moved to the newly created position ofShadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.[52] In February 2022, Nandy was critical of theLevelling Up White Paper.[53][better source needed]
Following a reshuffle on4 September 2023, Nandy was appointed theShadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, replacingPreet Gill.[54][55] Her move to the position was widely reported as a demotion.[56][57][58][59]
Following the2024 general election, Nandy was appointed to theCabinet asSecretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.[60] She was appointed to thePrivy Council and sworn into ministerial office on 6 July.[61]
In a joint letter withSecretary of State for Northern IrelandHilary Benn, Nandy confirmed toStormont'sMinister for CommunitiesGordon Lyons on 13 September 2024 that the government will not be providing funding for the redevelopment ofCasement Park in time for theEuro 2028 football tournament.[62]
Politico has stated that she is on the "centre left" of the Labour Party, and is a "clear break fromCorbynism".[63] TheConservative MPPaul Bristow described Nandy as being "refreshingly untribal".[64] Nandy's fellowLabour Party MPJon Cruddas has said that Nandy is on the "authenticsoft left" of the party.[65]
She has supported Labour's position as aninternationalist party,[66] supportedremaining in the EU, and supported a"soft" Brexit in opposition to asecond Brexit referendum.[67]
On theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, Nandy has supported atwo-state solution and opposed the "Trump peace plan" andIsraeli occupation of the West Bank.[68] She supports thePalestinian right of return, while also opposing theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and supporting the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.[67][69]
Nandy supports "ethicalinterventionism" and states that although she supports working towards peace, she is "not a pacifist". She has also citedRobin Cook's speech in 1997 on "ethical foreign policy" as an influence on her beliefs, andthe UK intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 as an example of ethical interventionism. She voted against UK airstrikes in Syria in 2015, opposedUK arms exports toSaudi Arabia, theassassination of Qasem Soleimani and theIraq War.[65][67]
She criticisedChina's record on human rights and called for sanctions on Chinese officials.[70] She criticisedRussia's record on human rights and theSalisbury poisoning and also former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn'spositions on Russia for standing "with the Russian government, and not with the people it oppresses".[67][71]
In 2019, theInternational Court of Justice inThe Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer theChagos Archipelago toMauritius as they werenot legally separated from the latter in 1965.[72] Nandy, in a letter to Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab said the UK's 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".[73]
During thefirst presidency of Donald Trump, when Nandy was running for Labour leadership, she said that the UK should "engage" withDonald Trump, to "have the argument" with him.[74] She also said that she would oppose signing a trade deal with the United States unless it ratified theParis Agreement, from which theUS withdrew under Trump's presidency.[67]
Nandy favours a system ofgeneral taxation to fund theBBC rather than the currentlicense fee system.[75]
Nandy's partner, Andy Collis, is a public relations consultant. She has a son, born in April 2015 at Wigan Infirmary Hospital.[76][77]
She is a member of theUnite Union.[11]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWigan 2010–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Minister for Children and Young Families 2012–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Minister for Civil Society 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 2015–2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 2020–2021 | Succeeded byasShadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities 2021–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development 2023–2024 | Vacant |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2024–present | Incumbent |
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| Also attending meetings | ||
| Departures | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
