Lisa Nandy is the Labour candidate for Wigan and the shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development.

Full statement

Since being elected, Nandy has pursued wide-ranging campaigns – from child abuse, educational allowance, regional development, housing, and against human rights abuses in Palestine. Following her initial election in 2010 Lisa has been re-elected to Parliament three times.

Lisa was born in Manchester to Luise and Dipak Nandy, a Indian-born activist and academic who was integral to drafting the 1976 Race Relations Act. Lisa was 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 a senior policy adviser at The Children’s Society.

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. She served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2015, shadowing Amber Rudd.

A key focus of Lisa’s work in Parliament has been raising the issue of towns, which have often been overlooked in the discussions on regional development and devolution. As co-founder of the Centre for Towns she spearheaded the campaign for Labour to represent and champion the coastal and industrial towns which are the bedrock of the Labour movement. These areas deserve a Labour government to breathe new life in to their regional economies and to give them the power to make their own decisions.

After a further four years as a backbench MP, Lisa stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. She was subsequently appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary in April 2020. From November 2021 to 2023, Lisa served as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – shadowing Michael Gove and holding the government to account on their flagship policy while demonstrating Labour’s commitment to homeownership, housebuilding and tackling regional inequality.

Lisa has been in her current role as Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development since November 2023, working to outline and highlight Labour’s commitment to champion Britain’s generosity and support for some of the world’s most disadvantaged.