Lisa Nandy says inquiry into Labour election defeat is taking the ‘wrong approach’ ‘We need to be out in places like Ashfield, listening to people like the ex-miner I met yesterday’

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy has criticised an inquiry into Labour’s election defeat for taking the “wrong approach” by not consulting the party’s councillors or trade unions.

Ms Nandy, who is considering running to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, said the probe into Labour’s significant defeat in the election risks not talking to those it needs to win back.

Former leader Ed Miliband is leading the inquiry into the loss of 59 seats in the 12 December election, where many seats swung towards the Conservatives in areas with strong historical ties to the Labour movement.

The i politics newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

‘The approach is wrong’

Ms Nandy told the Today Programme: “I have to be honest though, I didn’t know anything about this review until two days ago.

“And if the lesson is drawn from this election is, a review can be drawn up in a meeting room in Westminster without any reference to the two parts of the Labour movement – our councillor base and trade union base, that were probably the reason we didn’t have a worse result, I just don’t think that people are drawing the right lessons at all.

“We need to be out in places like Ashfield, listening to people like the ex-miner I met yesterday, not sitting in meeting rooms in Westminster trying to debate this out amongst ourselves with the help of a few think-tanks.”

She added: “I just think the approach is wrong.”

‘Labour’s not for us any more’

The probe will interview all Labour MPs who lost their seats and hold focus groups in the parts of Northern England, Midlands and Wale s were many turned towards the Tory Party, who now hold a majority in the Commons.

She said she spent Monday knocking on doors in Ashfield, and found trust in Labour was the “major issue”.

“There was a phrase that kept coming up yesterday that I’ve heard at home in Wigan as well, which is ‘Labour’s not for us any more’. There’s been a lot of talk about the role of Jeremy Corbyn in this election campaign.

“But there was just a general sense that at the top of the Labour Party, that we don’t speak for people like them any more, a sense we don’t have skin in the game, that we’re not rooted in those communities, and we’re just not like them, and we don’t come very often to just ask people what they think and to listen to what they’ve got to say.

“We often come in and tell them that we’ve got all the answers and we can fix it, and what people told us loud and clear in this election campaign is ‘you’re just not listening’.”

Ms Nandy said crime was the “great unspoken issue” of the election campaign, with many communities facing problems with drugs and anti-social behaviour, while police and council resources have been cut by the Tories in government.”