Lisa Nandy enters Labour leadership race with pledge to win back party's heartlands
3 min read
Lisa Nandy has become the latest candidate to enter the Labour leadership race with a pledge to win back northern voters who deserted the party at the general election.
The Wigan MP said the party should be led by someone who is "prepared to go out, listen and bring Labour home" to its traditional base.
She made the announcement in a letter to her local paper, the Wigan Post, just hours after Jess Phillips confirmed that she was also throwing her hat into the ring.
Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis have already declared that they are running, with Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long Bailey, Ian Lavery and Dan Jarvis also expected to stand.
Jeremy Corbyn announced that he was standing down in the wake of last month's general election, which saw Labour lose a swathe of seats in the north of England, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales as Boris Johnson secured an 80-seat majority.
In her letter, Ms Nandy, who has been an MP since 2010, said: "I understand that we have one chance to win back the trust of people in Wigan, Workington and Wrexham.
"Without what were once our Labour heartlands we will never win power in Westminster and help to buld the country we know we can be.
"I have heard you loud and clear when you said to earn that trust means we need a leader who is proud to be from those communities, has skin in the game, and is prepared to go out, listen and bring Labour home to you.
"I wanted to tell you first that I’m standing to be leader of the Labour Party because after a decade of having the privilege to represent you, I have a deeper understanding of what has gone awry in our discredited political system.
"I’m standing because I know too many people in places like Wigan no longer feel they have a voice in our national story. So many of you have told me you believe many leaders are not interested in what you have to say and are unable - or unwilling - to understand your lives. I believe you are right."
She added: "From the grassroots rugby league and football teams to the charities that have sustained people through the miners’ strike, pit closures and a decade of austerity, the belief that our community can be better has always been the driving force for change here in Wigan.
"We need a government that can match that ambition."
Earlier, Jess Phillips had called on Labour members to elect "a different kind of leader" as she joined the race to succeed Mr Corbyn.
She said: "We’re a party named after the working class who has lost huge parts of its working class base. Unless we address that, we are in big trouble."
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