(Bloomberg) --

Lisa Nandy, a senior member of UK Labour’s shadow cabinet, appeared on a union picket line on Monday morning in a test of opposition leader Keir Starmer’s authority.

Nandy, one of Starmer’s vanquished opponents in the party’s 2020 leadership contest -- was photographed speaking to BT and Openreach employees taking part in a Communication Workers Union strike in Wigan on Monday. CWU members at BT Group are striking for 24 hours in protest at a below-inflation pay increase.

Nandy’s attendance at the picket adds to the dilemma Starmer faces around the current wave of UK strikes. Labour is trying to balance supporting the interests of the party’s traditional backers in the unions while avoiding stoking worker unrest, which could leave the party open to political attacks from the Conservatives and damage its standing with the electorate.

Labour and Nandy’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Starmer provoked the ire of unions and left-wing MPs for firing a junior member of his team, Sam Tarry, after the transport spokesman joined a picket and conducted a round of media interviews in support of striking rail workers. That came a day after Starmer had indicated his shadow government shouldn’t be joining pickets.

“The Labour party in opposition needs to be the Labour party in power and a government doesn’t go on picket lines,” Starmer had said.

At the time, Labour said Tarry wasn’t fired for specifically for attending the picket, but rather for a breach of the “collective responsibility” required in Starmer’s top team, for making unauthorized media appearances and making up policy “on the hoof.”

That means Nandy is likely to escape similar sanction. However, her appearance at a picket demonstrates the challenge facing Labour’s leadership as it navigates a difficult line on industrial action.

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Author: Alex Wickham and Kitty Donaldson