Lisa Nandy

Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010, and served under Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from September 2015 until June 2016. Preceding this, she had served as the Shadow Minister for Children and then the Shadow Minister for Charities.

Early life and career
Nandy was born in Manchester to Luise Nandy (née Byers) and her then-husband Dipak Nandy. Luise Byers' father, Lord (Frank) Byers, had been a Liberal Party MP and held many offices in the party. Nandy grew up both in Manchester and in Bury, Greater Manchester, to where her family later moved.

Nandy was educated at Parrs Wood High School, a mixed comprehensive school in East Didsbury in Manchester, followed by Holy Cross College, Bury and Newcastle University, Tyne and Wear, from which she graduated in 2001 with a degree in politics and obtained a master's degree in public policy from Birkbeck, University of London.

Nandy has worked in the voluntary sector, as a researcher at the homelessness charity Centrepoint from 2003 to 2005, and then as senior policy adviser at The Children's Society from 2005, where she specialised in issues facing young refugees, also acting as adviser to the Children's Commissioner for England and to the Independent Asylum Commission.

Wigan MP
Nandy served as a Labour councillor for Hammersmith Broadway ward, Hammersmith and Fulham, from 4 May 2006 to 10 May 2010. She was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Wigan constituency in February 2010 from an all-women shortlist. Elected to parliament on 7 May 2010, she became the constituency's first female MP and one of the first six Asian female MPs elected.

She was appointed to the Education Select Committee on 12 July 2010 and was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet Minister for the Olympics, Tessa Jowell, in October 2010. In 2012, she was made shadow junior education minister after the reshuffle triggered by the resignation of Peter Hain. In October 2013 she was appointed shadow charities minister.

Following Labour's election defeat in May 2015 and Ed Miliband's subsequent resignation as party leader, there was some media speculation that Nandy would announce her candidacy in the leadership contest. Nandy declined and endorsed Andy Burnham. In August 2015, Owen Jones, the left-wing journalist, revealed in a blog post that he initially tried to draft Nandy into running for the leadership – the recent birth of her son, however, prevented such a campaign from materialising. Nandy has also been touted as an MP who could potentially succeed Jeremy Corbyn, before the next general election.

Shadow Cabinet
On 14 September 2015, it was announced that Nandy had been appointed to serve as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn. Along with many colleagues, she resigned from her post on 27 June 2016.

2016 leadership election
In the wake of the resignation of dozens of shadow ministers, Nandy was approached by members of the Parliamentary Labour Party who wanted her to stand against Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election that was to unfold. MPs felt that Nandy and eventual candidate Owen Smith were both soft left politicians who 'Corbynites' could vote for; however, Nandy declined to stand and instead served as co-chair of Smith's campaign team.

After the election resulted in Corbyn's re-election, Nandy announced that she did not intend to return to the frontbench without the re-introduction of Shadow Cabinet elections, which had been abolished by Ed Miliband in 2011 (the last election being held in 2010). She also spoke of the abuse she had received for not supporting Corbyn, which she described as leaving her "genuinely frightened". She compared her treatment to that which she had received at the hand of the far-right when she first campaigned to become MP for Wigan in 2010.

Personal life
Her partner, Andy Collis, is a public relations consultant. She has a son, who was born in Wigan Infirmary in April 2015.