The Labour leadership candidates have been facing off at hustings in Bristol

Lisa Nandy called for OBEs to replace the term 'empire' with 'excellence'

She said it 'alienates' people like poet Benjamin Zephaniah who turned one down

Lisa Nandy today demanded that 'Empire' is removed from OBE honours because it 'alienates' people.

The Labour leadership hopeful insisted doing away with the reference to Britain's colonial past would help make the country 'different'.

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She pointed to the example of poet Benjamin Zephaniah - who turned down an OBE in 2003 because it 'reminded him of thousands of years of brutality'.

The Order of the British Empire recognises contributions to the UK across the arts and sciences, charity, public service and the military.

It is split into a number of different ranks - the most senior of which makes people a knight or a dame.

Speaking at a Labour leadership hustings in Bristol today, Ms Nandy set out why she did not believe OBEs should refer to 'empire'

The four Labour leadership candidates (left to right, Emily Thornberry, Ms Nandy, Sir Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey) faced off at a hustings today

Ms Nandy pointed to the example of poet Benjamin Zephaniah (pictured in 2003) - who turned down an OBE because it 'reminded him of thousands of years of brutality'

Speaking at a Labour leadership hustings in Bristol today, Ms Nandy set out why she did not believe the term should be used.

'The self-confident, empowered country I will lead will be one that is different,' she said.

'Where people like Benjamin Zephaniah can accept the Order of Excellence not reject the Order of the British Empire.

'That celebrates those who built us not seeks to alienate them.

'To remake this country as it should and can be, Written, as he says, in ''verses of fire''.'

After he was put forward for an OBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours, Zephaniah wrote an article explaining why he had rejected it.

'It reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of the thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised,' he wrote in the Guardian.

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'Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr (Tony) Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.'

At the hustings, the four Labour candidates - Ms Nandy, Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Emily Thornberry - struck distinctly different tones on Brexit.

Both Ms Nandy and Ms Long-Bailey said efforts should now be redirected into ensuring a good trade is struck with Brussels.

Ms Long-Bailey told activists that the party could not campaign at the next general election, expected in 2024, with the message of 'we told you so' if the country's economic fortunes took a dip after leaving the EU.

She admitted it was 'sad' to see the UK's divorce from Brussels finalised this week but said the 'debate is over' on Brexit.

'We cannot spend the next four years waiting to tell our constituents we told you so and that we knew it was going to be this bad all along,' she said.

Ms Nandy was critical of Labour's reaction to the referendum outcome, accusing the leadership under Jeremy Corbyn of looking 'backwards' after the result rather than 'looking forward to the country we can be'.

Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Long-Bailey are the favourites in the Labour leadership battle

Ms Thornberry and Ms Nandy struck distinctly different tones on how Labour should handle the issue of Brexit

'We completely missed the point of that political earthquake, which was a clamour for more power, more control and more agency across this country,' said the backbencher.

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The former shadow energy secretary, who voted for the Prime Minister's Withdrawal Agreement at second reading, admitted she had failed in her push for a Brexit deal that kept a close relationship with the EU.

Ms Thornberry took an opposing view to her two female rivals and said she suspected the PM would not be successful in acquiring a trade agreement with Brussels, forecasting that the country would be 'back in no-deal territory by the summer'.

'What do we do at that stage? We need to have someone leading the fight who was on the right side of the argument all along,' said the Islington South and Finsbury MP, who is the only contender not to have secured enough backing to advance to the final stage.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, one of the architects of Labour's second referendum policy, said the divide between Leave and Remain voters must end, but accused the Government of failing to address the 'underlying reasons' why the electorate voted out before Friday's historic moment.