RIVALS LINE UP
LISA Nandy today reveals the moment she found her voice as an MP – as she looked into the eyes of a rape victim and promised to make her life better.
The Labour leader contender says she resolved to fight injustice as the woman told her she would lose benefits if she did not agree to a physical examination.
Ms Nandy, 40, explained: “This young lady had been traumatised by the horrific attack. The way she had been treated by the benefits system compounded that.
“There’s something about Parliament that can be very intimidating when you first arrive. You need to find your confidence really quickly, otherwise you can’t make change.
“It was her terrible story that made me find my voice.
“I told then-Home Secretary Theresa May that, if the woman got one more letter asking her for an exam, I would raise hell – and the issue was sorted.
“The victim was given two years without being sent any more letters.
“In many ways, this young woman made me feel I had a right to force things on to the agenda. That was a game-changer for me.”
Ms Nandy has now joined the contest to be Jeremy Corbyn’s replacement.
But, despite her chatty, humorous demeanour, the mum of one no longer struggles to state her views: Boris
Johnson is not to be trusted, regional devolution of powers is good and the North’s transport system needs improving.
Above all, she realises, Labour needs a new focus after its “devastating” General Election defeat to the Tories.
But she says she will not move to London if she wins the race.
She added: “If the Labour leader cannot live in Wigan and travel for work to
London, there’s something wrong with Labour and the country.”
Like many female MPs, Ms Nandy has been subjected to misogynistic and political abuse, plus racial slurs over her Indian heritage.
Her father Dipak, 82, is a Marxist academic who helped draw up the Race Relations Act. And she said of those who hurl insults: “I won’t let them stop me”.
Ms Nandy, who lives with her partner PR man Andy Collis and their fouryear-old son, took a soft Brexit approach to Europe.
She advocated we leave the European Union but keep close ties with our neighbours. This led to three years of being pummelled by abuse.
She revealed: “The abuse over the last three years has been astronomical. “Some of it misogynistic, some of it deeply sexist, some downright abusive and some threatening.
“When I was first selected for Parliament, I had notes through my door and letters to the office, saying, ‘You need to get out of this country’.
“Right-wingers were at the centre of it – and they tried to slash my car tyres but got my neighbours’ instead.
“Some people wrote on message boards that I was a secret Muslim and planned to tear down The Anvil pub in Wigan to put up a statue of a woman in a burka.”
But if elected leader, she promises to move quickly to stamp out any signs of anti-Semitism.
Asked if Corbyn is to blame for Labour Party issues, Ms Nandy refuses to criticise him directly.
But, she said: “The next leader needs to do things differently. The public needs to see we have listened, understood the scale of what they are trying to tell us, the depths of that anger, and that we are changing. We need to earn back that trust we have lost.”
The public needs to see that we have listened
LISA NANDY LABOUR LEADER CONTENDER