Lisa Nandy accuses Labour Remainers of failing to fight for UK’s place in the world and being too focused on the EU Exclusive: Leadership contender says party needs to broaden its horizons on foreign policy

Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy will launch an attack on the party’s pro-Remain wing for being too focused on the EU and paying only “lip service” to its broader internationalist traditions.

In a speech on foreign policy on Wednesday, the MP for Wigan will say the party became too focused on the “corrosive” debate on Brexit under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

She will criticise Labour Remainers for failing to argue for the UK’s place in the world, beyond the EU, saying that while the right hailed the UK as a “small nation with a proud history of punching above our weight”, Labour’s pro-Europeans had little else to say except pledging to cut roaming charges.

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Ms Nandy will back a close relationship with Europe as a top priority after Brexit, but say that Labour needs to think beyond the EU about the UK’s foreign and security policy.

Nandy sets out stall for top job

In her speech to the Royal Society of Arts in London, Ms Nandy will say: “For Labour internationalism has become just about being in the EU.

“We’ve paid lip service to our proud internationalist history but without ever explaining what that meant for the future. Because we’ve been locked in a corrosive debate solely focused on Remain or Leave.

“One of the problems with the referendum was that there was no story about our place in the world. They said we were a small nation with a proud history of punching above our weight. We said we’ll cut your mobile phone roaming charges.”

Ms Nandy secured the backing of the National Union of Mineworkers. Although its membership has fallen to just over 300, having the support of a union associated with northern working class constituencies that Labour lost to the Tories in December is a symbolic boost to her campaign.

But it is more than symbolic, because in the second round of the contest, the backing of a union counts towards the 5 per cent of affiliates or constituency parties required to progress.

Rival for the leadership

Ms Nandy’s comments come as her rival to succeed Mr Corbyn, Jess Phillips, has appointed one of the leading figures of the 2016 Remain campaign to her leadership team.

Will Straw, who was director of Britain Stronger In Europe, will act as an adviser to the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr.

Melanie Onn, who lost her seat of Great Grimsby to the Conservatives, will be the co-chairman of her campaign alongside Wes Streeting, the MP for Ilford North.

Ms Phillips’ aides said she plans to speak to “hundreds of thousands of Labour members and millions of voters” over the next 11 weeks before the leadership ballot closes on 2 April.

Her campaign team will build a new “grassroots political force” to champion causes that matter to people and to fix the “broken” political system.

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Among those appointed to her team are Alicia Kennedy, who was chief of staff to Tom Watson as deputy leader and is a former deputy general secretary, will be Ms Phillips’ campaign director.

She has also appointed Blair McDougall, who was chief strategist at Better Together, the campaign for Scotland to remain in the UK, as an adviser to focus on winning back support for Labour in Scotland.

Ms Phillips said: “I look forward to making my case to be a different sort of Labour leader – one who is honest, straight-talking and focuses on the shared challenges faced by communities across Britain, from Dunstable to Dundee, Canterbury to Cardiff.

“I will spend every day of the next 11 weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country talking to Labour members, answering their questions and having an honest debate about how we transform our Party into a winning force again.”