Lisa Nandy has attended a picket line of BT workers despite Sir Keir Starmer’s ban on leaders supporting strikes.
The Wigan MP and shadow secretary was pictured on 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 railway picket line and accused of inventing labor policy. “on the hoof”.
Last week, Sir Keir, the Labor leader, said an earlier ban on shadow ministers attending picket lines was still in place, arguing that “the Labor Party in opposition must be the Labor Party in power, and a government does not go on picket lines”.
In an article for the Sunday Mirror, he said he supported the strikers’ “right to do it” but stopped short of backing any specific industrial action, including the upcoming rail strikes and CWU action.
A source close to Nandy said Sir Keir was aware of his decision to attend the picket in advance, adding: “He came down to show his support for people campaigning for better pay and conditions in a very difficult time, how would you. wait.
“As Keir said in the Mirror piece, we support their right to do that, and what they need now is a Labor government so they don’t feel alone when times are tough.”
Party whip Navendu Mishra was also pictured on a CWU picket line in Stockport. He tweeted his support for the strikes, adding that it was a “shame that some workers have to rely on food banks to survive”.