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Updated: Dec 15, 2019 21:16 IST

Daughter of a West Bengal-born Marxist Lisa Nandy has emerged as one of two frontrunners to replace Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who led the party to one of its worst defeats in last Thursday’s UK elections.

Nandy, 40, Labour MP from Wigan, Greater Manchester, is the daughter of Dipak Nandy, a respected academic who settled in the UK in the mid ’50s. Nandy confirmed she is ‘seriously considering’ running for the leadership. 40-year-old Rebecca Long-Bailey, MP from Salford and Eccles is the other favourite in contention.

Jeremy Corbyn wrote in two Sunday papers, apologising for the party’s failure to convert popular policies into a majority vote.

His deputy and shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, also accepted blame and apologised.

“We have suffered a heavy defeat, and I take my responsibility for it. Labour will soon have a new leader. But whoever that will be, our movement will continue to work for a more equal and just society, and a sustainable and peaceful world,” Corbyn wrote in The Observer and went on say, that his party lost polls but won the argument.

“There is no doubt that our policies are popular, from public ownership of rail and key utilities to a massive house-building programme and a pay rise for millions. The question is, how can we succeed in future where we didn’t this time?”

McDonnell blamed the focus on Brexit and the news media’s alleged biased reporting of Labour and Corbyn for the defeat, but added in a BBC Sunday television show: “It’s on me. It’s on me. Let’s take it on the chin. I own this disaster. I apologise to all those wonderful Labour MPs who’ve lost their seats who’ve worked so hard ... If anyone’s to blame it is me. Full stop.”

Labour’s national executive committee will announce the schedule for electing the next party leader, most likely to be concluded by February. Besides Nandy and Long-Bailey, those likely to contest include Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and Jess Phillips.

Nandy, the youngest daughter born to Dipak Nandy and Luise Nandy (nee Byers), has politics in her family. Besides her father, who arrived from India in 1956 and founded the think-tank Runnymede Trust, her grandfather Frank Byers was a Liberal party MP in the house of Lords.

Nandy wrote in The Observer that if Labour drew the “right lessons” from the defeat, the Conservatives will have “a lot to worry about”. She went on to say that prime minister Boris Johnson was on borrowed time.

“This was a clear victory for the Tories – but it was not won thanks to any real affection for Boris Johnson and what he stands for. He knows he is on borrowed time. An open, inclusive Labour party can provide people with a vision of a future that matters to them and that they have a stake in,” she wrote.