Politics

Lisa Nandy clashes with Piers Morgan over Meghan racism claims


The Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has defended the Duchess of Sussex against Piers Morgan’s claims that she has not suffered racism, asking the TV presenter “how on earth” he would know about the prejudice experienced by people of colour.

Nandy took Morgan to task as she appeared on his Good Morning Britain show for ITV, telling him that Meghan had received harsh treatment from some parts of the media.

Nandy was being interviewed as part of a broadcast round after winning the crucial backing of the GMB union, meaning she is likely to make it to the next round of the Labour leadership race. Later on Wednesday she will give a speech about the welfare state, arguing that universal credit should not be scrapped but must be properly funded.

But she ended up clashing with Morgan over racism as he insisted that complaints by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about the press had “nothing to do with her skin colour, nothing to do with her gender” but were all about her not liking negative coverage.

Nandy replied: “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 added: “I think Britain is a much more decent country than some sections of the media would have us believe. The way Meghan Markle was treated, I didn’t like it at all.”

Nandy’s father, Dipak Nandy, was an Indian-born academic. He founded the racial equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust and helped draft the 1976 Race Relations Act. He staged sit-ins at a Leicester pub in the 1960s, which at that time operated a colour bar.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nandy took a robust tone on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as she said the presenter, Nick Robinson, had asked a “daft” question when inquiring who she thought was the best Labour leader in history.

Despite having backed Owen Smith’s challenge for the Labour leadership in 2016, she defended Corbyn’s record and blamed the press for having “trashed” him.

The first stage of the contest was for potential contenders to get the backing of 22 fellow MPs by 13 January. Five MPs passed this threshold: Keir Starmer (88 nominations),  Rebecca Long-Bailey (33), Lisa Nandy (31), Jess Phillips (23) and Emily Thornberry (23).

The second stage requires each contender to win the support either of 33 constituency Labour parties (CLPs); or of three affiliates, two of which must be unions, and which between them account for at least 5% of the affiliated membership. This must be achieved before 14 February. Jess Phillips withdrew from the contest on 21 January.

The ballot of members and registered supporters opens a week later on 21 February, and closes at noon on 2 April. To be eligible to vote you must have been a Labour member on 20 January, or have applied to have become a £25 registered supporter by 16 January.

Corbyn’s successor will be announced at a special conference in London on 4 April.

She was also critical of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for not doing enough in the 1990s to overturn Margaret Thatcher’s economic legacy.

“I’m not going to trash the legacy of the last Labour government because things like the minimum wage were complete game-changers in towns like Wigan, and the investment that went into health and education was really important.

“But it is certainly true to say that the consensus that Thatcher built lasted all the way through the New Labour years.

“I came into politics after 10 years working in the voluntary sector with homeless teenagers, first of all, and then with child refugees.

“And the reason I did was out of frustration with a system under the last Labour government that took small amounts from people at the very top of the system and handed it with conditions to those at the bottom.”



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