Revealing comments during Newsnight leadership debate

Lisa Nandy during last night’s Newsnight debate

Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy has managed to attract some support among Labour members as the candidate most vocal about standing up for her leave-voting constituents.

But in a less than a minute during last night’s Newsnight leadership debate, Nandy managed to set fire to her claim to any support among the party’s left-wing majority – and to any public appeal on her policy approach.

In one answer, Nandy claimed that Labour’s fully-costed manifesto – the most thoroughly-costed by far of any party at the general election – meant that it didn’t know how to pay for the policies it proposed.

And in claiming that the party should abandon its commitment to renationalising key industries and services, Ms Nandy managed to ignore the vast majority of voters, most of whom think that renationalising the rail, mail and utilities is a great and long-overdue idea:

Nandy has impressed with her performances so far in the leadership campaign – but last night’s revelation suggested that ‘performance’ is exactly what they have been. Given that she resigned during the 2016 ‘chicken coup’ and chaired Owen Smith’s leadership challenge, it’s not too surprising.

Nandy seemed to forget that she is asking for support from Labour members who overwhelmingly support renationalisation and are justly proud of the party’s thorough plans for bringing it about – and that if she won, she would be asking for support from voters who largely agree that it’s the right way forward, regardless of how they voted on the Brexit issue in December.

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