Lisa Nandy is hoping to be the next leader of the Labour party. Unfortunately for her, it’s a tricky race in which Rebecca Long-Bailey and Keir Starmer are the front runners. RLB is thought to represent consistency with Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure and is supported by many of the unions. Keir Starmer also has widespread union support and is the odds-on favourite for the job.
So, in order to stay in the race, Nandy is doing the press circuit. Which usually means a lot of half-hearted mission statements and smiling. But not from Nandy. Instead she’s visited most of the TV shows in London today, taking absolutely no shit.
It started with Good Morning Britain, where she fired back at Piers Morgan over his on-going criticism of Meghan Markle. Morgan claimed that negative headlines about Meghan Markle had ‘nothing to do with her skin colour, nothing to do with her gender’. Nandy fired back, ‘If you don’t mind me saying, how on earth would you know? As someone who’s never had to deal with ingrained prejudice, you’re not in a position to understand people who have. And I think there were a lot of people who signed that letter who have.’
She was then asked whether by Labour chairman Ian Lavery whether she believed that fellow leadership hopeful Keir Starmer should ‘move aside’ to make way for a female leader, to which she responded, ‘It’s not up to him. It’s up to our members.’
Nandy had begun the day with a newsworthy interview with Nick Robinson on the Today programme on Radio 4. Robinson asked her, ‘Who is your favourite Labour leader?’ She replied, ‘I think there are different leaders who’ve done different things at different times.’ ‘Carefully avoided’ Robinson responded.
‘Well it’s a daft question’ Nandy replied.
It’s not yet clear whether Nandy’s refreshing attitude towards interviews, which is being roundly praised online, will be enough to see her overtake her rivals in the leadership race. Political pundits seem unsure whether she will be able to sustain her position in the race. But even if her time in the eye of the media storm is short, she will at least be able to take comfort in the knowledge that it was a breath of fresh air.
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