Navendu “Nav” Mishra is of Indian ancestry; his mother is from Gorakhpur and his father is from Kanpur, both in Uttar Pradesh. He attended the public school Clifton College in Bristol.

Before entering politics, Mishra was a shop-floor trade unionist in Stockport, before becoming an organiser for Unison and helping to organise care workers in precarious employment.

He was a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee from September 2018 until December 2019.

Nav was selected as Labour’s candidate for Stockport in the 2019 general election. Mishra held the seat for Labour, with a 52% share of the vote.