Indian-origin Labour leadership contender calls for UK honours system reform

Lisa Nandy, the Indian-origin contender in the leadership race to replace Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has called for a reform of the UK's honours system to distance itself from colonial undertones.

Nandy, who has made it to the final postal ballot paper and has been on the campaign trail to win over Labour Party membership votes, said that references to the British Empire in the honours bestowed upon high-achieving individuals should be removed to focus on excellence.

"It was [poet] Benjamin Zephaniah who balked at the prospect of accepting an OBE the Order of the British Empire. Why not a choice to provide the Order of British Excellence? Why does the honours system, which should recognise the contribution of our people, shut people out, rather than bring people in?" she questioned at a hustings in Bristol on Saturday.

"The self-confident, empowered country I will lead will be one that is different. Where people like Benjamin Zephaniah can accept the Order of Excellence not reject the Order of the British Empire. That celebrates those who built us not seeks to alienate them," she said.

The 40-year-old, the daughter of an India-born academic father and a British mother, has also called on the Opposition party to accept Brexit and move on now that the UK has formally left the European Union (EU) on Friday.

She has been openly critical of the Corbyn-led party, which got a bruising at the General Election last month, and has accused the old guard of looking "backwards" after the result rather than "looking forward to the country we can be".

"We completely missed the point of that political earthquake, which was a clamour for more power, more control and more agency across this country," said Nandy, who had stepped down as shadow energy secretary in Corbyn's top team soon after the June 2016 referendum over the party's unclear stance on Brexit.

In the leadership race, Nandy will go head to head with Corbyn-backed Rebecca Long-Bailey and frontrunner shadow Brexit secretary Kier Starmer.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry still lacks the necessary grassroots support to appear on the final ballot paper ahead of postal voting, which opens later next month, with the new leader taking charge on April 4.