Lisa Nandy
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Lisa Nandy is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since July 2024. In this role, she oversees the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which includes the UK Gambling Commission and gambling policy. She is a key figure in the regulatory landscape of the iGaming industry.
Born on 9 August 1979 in Manchester, Nandy studied politics at Newcastle University (BA, 2001) and earned a Master's in public policy from Birkbeck, University of London. Before entering politics, she worked as a researcher at the homelessness charity Centrepoint (2003–2005) and as a senior policy adviser at The Children's Society (2005–2010), focusing on vulnerable children and young refugees. She also served as a Labour councillor for Hammersmith and Fulham from 2006 to 2010.
Elected as the MP for Wigan in 2010, Nandy held numerous shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet roles under leaders Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn, and Keir Starmer. She served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (2015–2016), Shadow Foreign Secretary (2020–2021), and later Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (2021–2023). She stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, finishing third.
Following Labour's 2024 general election victory, she was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. In this capacity, she has publicly addressed issues such as unlicensed gambling operators sponsoring Premier League clubs and the benefits of a regulated gambling market. She is also the author of the book All In: How We Build a Country That Works.