British ‘excellence’ honours system must replace links to empire, Labour’s Lisa Nandy says

Exclusive: Awards shut people out, rather than bringing them in, leadership contender says

Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy has proposed overhauling the honours system by removing reference to the British Empire in medals awarded to high-achieving individuals.

Citing Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet who rejected an OBE (officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2003, the Wigan MP will say that she wants to alter the honours system that “shuts people out”.

At the time, Mr Zephaniah wrote: “It reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of the thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.

“Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr [Tony] Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.”

The awards are typically presented during a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace and hundreds of people are nominated each year, recognising their contribution to public service and their field of expertise.

The Order of the British Empire awards also consist of different ranks, including knight, dame, commander of the British Empire, officer of the British Empire and member of the British Empire.

Speaking in Bristol, an area that played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade, the Wigan MP, however, will say: “Bristol, a city which was built on the backs of the slave trade, is now led by Europe’s first directly elected black mayor.

“A Labour-led city whose citizens are showing leadership on climate change and compassion towards refugees. In doing so, Bristol is telling us a story about the Britain we can be.”

Addressing the honours system, she will add: “As prime minister I would give everyone receiving an honour the choice to receive an Order of British Excellence. The honours system, which should recognise the contribution of our people, shuts people out, rather than bringing them in.

“That is the country I want to build, and the Labour Party I will lead. That never accepts the world as it is but the world as it should be. As Benjamin Zephaniah asks: ‘What happened to the verse of fire?’ We can be far more ambitious.”

Her remarks come with just two weeks remaining in the second round of the party’s contest to find Jeremy Corbyn’s successor. Ms Nandy, alongside shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, is through to the final ballot of members.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, however, is struggling to gain momentum and so far has just nine out of a required 33 local Labour parties backing her campaign to be the next leader.

Ms Long-Bailey is also expected to use a campaign rally in Bristol to call for people to reject “tribalism” in their efforts to combat the climate emergency.

The Salford and Eccles MP will again highlight Labour’s manifesto commitment of a Green New Deal, and recommit to the aim of cutting the substantial majority of emissions by 2030. The Labour leadership candidate will say that every home should be insulated, investment should be put into 9,000 additional wind turbines, and a charging network to deal with 20 million electric cars should be created.