Lisa Nandy

Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development in 2023.

Lisa Eva Nandy was born in Manchester on 9 August 1979, the daughter of Luise (née Byers) and Dipak Nandy.

Her maternal grandfather Frank Byers was a Liberal MP who later became a life peer.

Nandy grew up in both Manchester and Bury.

She was educated at Parrs Wood High School, a co-educational comprehensive school in East Didsbury in Manchester, followed by Holy Cross College in Bury.

She studied politics at Newcastle University, graduating in 2001, and obtained a master's degree in public policy from Birkbeck, University of London.

She worked as a researcher and caseworker for the Walthamstow Labour MP Neil Gerrard.

After that, Nandy worked as a researcher at the homelessness charity Centrepoint from 2003 to 2005, and then as senior policy adviser at The Children's Society from 2005 until her election in 2010, where she specialised in issues facing young refugees, also acting as adviser to the Children's Commissioner for England and to the Independent Asylum Commission.

She served as a Labour councillor for the Hammersmith Broadway ward on Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council from 2006 to 2010.

As a councillor, she served as shadow cabinet member for housing.

She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010.

Nandy previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary and Shadow Energy Secretary.

Nandy was born in Manchester and educated at Parrs Wood High School and Holy Cross College before studying politics at Newcastle University and public policy at Birkbeck, University of London.

She then worked as an aide to Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard, a researcher for homelessness charity Centrepoint and as a senior policy adviser at The Children's Society.

She also served as a Labour councillor for the Hammersmith Broadway ward on Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council.

Nandy was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell from 2010 to 2012, Shadow Minister for Children from 2012 to 2013, and Shadow Minister for Charities and Civil Society from 2012 to 2015, with responsibility for Labour Policy on the voluntary sector.

Nandy was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Wigan in February 2010 from an all-women shortlist.

Elected to parliament on 7 May 2010, she became the constituency's first female MP and one of the first Asian female MPs.

Nandy was elected with a majority of 10,487, receiving 48.5% of the vote.

She was appointed to the Education Select Committee in July 2010 and was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Olympics Minister, in October 2010.

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.

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".

In 2012, she succeeded Catherine McKinnell as Shadow Children and Young Families Minister.

In October 2013, she was appointed shadow charities minister.

She served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2015, shadowing Amber Rudd, until she resigned in 2016 to co-chair Owen Smith's leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn.

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%.

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.

Nandy declined and endorsed Andy Burnham.

In August 2015, Owen Jones said that he encouraged Nandy to run for the leadership, but the recent birth of her son prevented it.

In September 2015, it was announced that Nandy had been appointed to serve as Shadow Energy Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet.

Along with many colleagues, she resigned from her post in June 2016.

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.

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, 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%.

In 2018, Nandy set up the Centre for Towns, with data analytics expert Ian Warren.

After a further four years as a backbench MP, Nandy stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, coming in third place with 16.3% of the vote, behind Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Starmer subsequently appointed Nandy as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in April 2020.

Following a reshuffle in November 2021, Nandy was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.