Labour’s Nandy: UK ‘Must’ Extend Brexit Transition Period Because of Coronavirus

CARDIFF, WALES - FEBRUARY 02: Lisa Nandy speaks at the Labour Leadership Hustings at Cardi
Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy has said that the UK “must” extend the Brexit transition period beyond December 2020 because of “uncertainties” of Brexit being exasperated by the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The Labour MP for Wigan voted Remain in the 2016 referendum and Ms Nandy has since attempted to project an air of Brexit Acceptance including ruling out as party leader campaigning to rejoin the EU. However, Ms Nandy seems keen to delay the UK’s exit from the bloc’s rules and institutions.

Writing a piece for The Guardian entitled, “With Coronavirus, the Government Must Extend the Brexit Transition Period,” the candidate seeking to take over leadership of the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn said that British businesses will not be able to “cope with more uncertainty” after leaving EU institutions, despite Britons preparing to leave the EU since 2016.

Ms Nandy wrote that “we must agree with the EU to extend the Brexit transition period”.

She continued to claim: “British companies who trade with the EU do not know what terms they’ll be trading on in 10 months’ time. Add to this the falling demand and disruption created by coronavirus and it is reasonable to expect many businesses will not survive.”

She then demanded that the extension “must happen now”, suggesting that if not, British citizens living in the EU who get sick will not be able to access free healthcare. She claimed that unless the extension is made, “Public safety is at stake.”

Lisa Nandy is trailing in third place in the polls behind Corbyn acolyte Rebecca Long-Bailey and leading candidate Sir Keir Starmer. Nandy is the daughter of Marxist scholar Dipak Nandy who was the first chairman of the left-wing Runnymede Trust and granddaughter on her mother’s side of the Liberal Lord Byers.

The candidate showcased her progressive credentials on the campaign trail by declaring that convicted male criminals who claim to be women should be allowed to be housed in women’s prisons, and signed a pledge that “transphobes” should be expelled from the Labour Party.

A self-declared “democrat”, Nandy said that while she would vote to abolish the Monarchy, she nevertheless said: “I’d quite like to see Queen Meghan at some point.”

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