36 Facts About Lisa Nandy

Lisa Eva Nandy was born on 9 August 1979 and is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024.

Lisa Nandy has served as the Member of Parliament for the Wigan constituency since 2010.

Lisa 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.

Lisa Nandy 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.

Lisa Eva Nandy was born in Manchester on 9 August 1979, the daughter of The Hon.

Lisa Nandy's maternal grandfather Frank Byers was a Liberal MP who later became a life peer in the House of Lords.

Lisa Nandy was educated at the private, fee-paying Moor Allerton Preparatory School, before going to Parrs Wood High School, a co-educational comprehensive school in East Didsbury in Manchester, followed by Holy Cross College in Bury.

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

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

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

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

Lisa Nandy 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.

In September 2015, it was announced that Labour's new leader Jeremy Corbyn had appointed Lisa Nandy to serve as Shadow Energy Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet.

Lisa Nandy declined to stand and instead served as co-chair of Smith's campaign team.

Lisa Nandy spoke of the abuse she had received for not supporting Corbyn, which she described as leaving her "genuinely frightened".

Lisa Nandy 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.

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

In January 2020, Lisa Nandy wrote a letter to the Wigan Post outlining her intention to stand to succeed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2020 leadership election, saying that she wanted to "bring Labour home" to its traditional strongholds.

On 16 January 2020, during the Labour leadership election, Lisa Nandy said that demands for Scottish independence could be overcome with a "social justice agenda", saying that there were times in the past when that had quelled nationalist movements in Catalonia and Quebec.

Lisa Nandy was criticised by several Scottish National Party politicians, who pointed to police violence and the jailing of politicians during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum to refute her point.

On 21 January 2020, Lisa Nandy was endorsed by the GMB union, which praised her "ambition, optimism, and decisive leadership".

Lisa Nandy came third in the contest, receiving 79,597 votes.

On 5 April 2020, Lisa Nandy was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the new Shadow Cabinet led by Keir Starmer.

In March 2021, Lisa Nandy made her first foreign policy speech at Chatham House.

Lisa Nandy said her priorities would include national security, Russian aggression and climate change.

On 29 November 2021, Lisa Nandy was moved to the newly created position of Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

In February 2022, Lisa Nandy was critical of the Levelling Up White Paper.

Lisa Nandy's move to the position was widely reported as a demotion.

The Conservative MP Paul Bristow described Lisa Nandy as being "refreshingly untribal".

Lisa Nandy has supported Labour's position as an internationalist party, supported remaining in the EU, and supported a "soft" Brexit in opposition to a second Brexit referendum.

Lisa Nandy has cited Robin Cook's speech in 1997 on "ethical foreign policy" as an influence on her beliefs, and the UK intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 as an example of ethical interventionism.

Lisa Nandy voted against UK airstrikes in Syria in 2015, opposed UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and the Iraq War.

Lisa Nandy criticised China's record on human rights and called for sanctions on Chinese officials.

Lisa Nandy criticised Russia's record on human rights and the Salisbury poisoning and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's positions on Russia for standing "with the Russian government, and not with the people it oppresses".

Lisa Nandy said that she would oppose signing a trade deal with the United States unless it ratified the Paris Agreement, from which the US withdrew under Trump's presidency.

Lisa Nandy has a son, born in April 2015 at Wigan Infirmary Hospital.