Lisa Nandy rejects 'really crass' accusations she insulted veterans with Remembrance Sunday ‘EU pitch’

Lisa Nandy has rejected "really crass" accusations that she insulted veterans by using Remembrance Sunday to push an EU membership pitch. Ms Nandy has been criticised after the Department of Culture released a statement ahead of Remembrance Sunday saying it wanted to “repair” damage to “the strong links with Europe that veterans’ service helped to secure and endure after the Second World War”. The statement claims Ms Nandy “believes that we owe it to our brave veterans to repair these relationships with our friends in Europe” by returning to the student European exchange programme, Erasmus Plus.

LBC’s Lewis Goodall challenged the culture secretary over whether the comments were “insulting”, adding that soldiers "didn’t die for a student exchange programme, they died to free Europe from fascism.” Read more: UK return to Erasmus scheme to cost Brits £570m a year - with bill set to soar Read more: King leads Remembrance Sunday service at Cenotaph The Labour MP for Wigan said she rejected the “really crass” accusation, and was “horrified by the politicking” surrounding Erasmus Plus.

“I think it is really, really wrong to say that we shouldn’t, on Remembrance Sunday and every day, make sure that we work as hard to honour their legacy through peace as they had to do through war,” she said. She argued that honouring veterans’ legacy should include “education in schools”, “exchange programmes”, and remembrance events, particularly as fewer children will now have the first-hand opportunity to meet Second World War veterans.

Ms Nandy insisted on LBC that the Government’s intention was not to diminish the meaning of Remembrance Sunday, but to uphold a legacy of peace and co-operation across Europe. Asked separately about Brexit, Ms Nandy said she did not believe Britain should “rush into rejoining the EU”. “I’m not even sure that that is a choice that is ahead of us,” she added.