Wigan warrior Lisa Nandy is fast emerging as Labour’s best hope to rebuild the red wall.
The Northern MP’s pragmatic left-wing politics and engaging personality are a winning combination to woo back working class voters and repair damage inflicted by pathological liar Boris Johnson’s wrecking ball.
Nandy, 40, will declare shortly she’s running, with Gtr Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and one-time deputy leadership contender Jon Cruddas already on her campaign team.
I understand she has approached Unite, GMB, CWU and other unions to construct a coalition extending to businesses, joking to colleagues she would love to be endorsed by the Heinz factory in her constituency.
Tough behind her smile, industrial Wigan guarantees that she connects with grafters who deserted Labour better than Jeremy Corbyn ever did.
Newsnight inquisitor-in-chief Emily Maitlis observed Labour’s outgoing leadership stupidly ignored Nandy’s warnings the party desperately needed to engage with the forgotten towns now flirting with the Tories.
I have known that Conservative MPs have feared Nandy for a while.
A Yorkshire Tory confided three years ago he was relieved she wasn’t leader after she eviscerated Theresa May over child sex abuse scandals while standing in at PMQs.
When a majority of Labour MPs are female, it’s historically shameful that a party preaching equality has decided that for 119 years the best person for the top job was always a man.
The next leader should be from their talented group of women. Nandy may be up against Angela Rayner, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry and Jess Phillips in the race.
Highly fancied is Keir Starmer whose pitch is appearing rather Prime Ministerial.
Yet the comp girl born in North West England with a British-Indian father and a grandfather who was a Liberal MP then peer has an edge on them all.
Fast on her feet and at home downing a pint in a pub or talking to corporations, Nandy’s search for an answer to the Europe conundrum could win back to the Labour voters who defected due to Corbyn(45%) and Brexit(31%).
Tory strategists sitting in Downing Street fear Nandy. That alone should be good enough for Labour.
