Lisa Nandy has attended a BT workers’ picket line despite Sir Keir Starmer’s ban on frontbenchers supporting strikes.
The Wigan MP and shadow levelling up secretary was photographed at a Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) picket line in her constituency on Monday, five days after Sam Tarry was sacked for giving media interviews from a rail picket line and accused of making up Labour policy “on the hoof”.
Last week Sir Keir, the Labour leader, said a previous ban on shadow ministers attending picket lines was still in force, arguing that “the Labour Party in opposition needs to be the Labour Party in power, and a government doesn’t go on picket lines”.
In an article for the Sunday Mirror, he said he supported strikers’ “right to do so” but stopped short of issuing support for any specific industrial action, including forthcoming rail strikes and the CWU action.
A source close to Ms Nandy said Sir Keir was aware of her decision to attend the picket line in advance, adding: “She went down to show her support for people campaigning for better pay and conditions at a really tough time, as you’d expect.
“As Keir said in the Mirror piece, we support their right to do that, and what they need now is a Labour government so they don’t feel like they’re on their own when times are tough.”
Navendu Mishra, a party whip, was also photographed on a CWU picket line in Stockport. He tweeted his support for the strikes, adding that it is a “disgrace that some in the workforce have to rely on foodbanks to survive”.
