LONDON, United Kingdom. Chuka Umunna has announced he will run for the Labour leadership, saying he will put the party back in power in five years.
Making his declaration in a Facebook video, the shadow business secretary, said rebuilding Labour was not a 10-year job.
In the video – shot in the high street in Swindon, the town in which the Conservatives launched their manifesto – Mr Umunna said he had travelled out of London to announce his bid because it was the kind of place the party needed to target.
He said: “I think we can and we should be winning in seats like in Swindon, north, south, east, west – we can absolutely do it as a party.
“Some have actually suggested over the last few days that somehow this is now a 10-year project to get the Labour Party back in office. I don’t think we can have any truck with that at all, I think the Labour Party can do it in five years.
“I want to lead that effort as part of a really big Labour team, getting Labour back into office and changing this country: building a fairer, more equal society.”
He made the point that of the 80 seats targeted by Labour, two of which were in Swindon, they won just four.
He used the town to point out that the party had lost working-class votes to UKIP and middle-class votes to the Conservatives.
Chuka Umunna profile
“Chuka Umunna was elected as Member of Parliament for Streatham in May 2010, becoming the first MP for the constituency to have grown up in the area.
He was selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for the seat in March 2008 by the Streatham Labour Party after Keith Hill MP, who first won the seat for Labour in 1992, announced his retirement at the next general election.
Born in October 1978, Chuka studied Law at the University of Manchester and the University of Burgundy, followed by Nottingham Law School.
An employment law solicitor by profession, prior to his election Chuka worked at a law firm primarily acting for employees but also employers, having trained as a solicitor at a City law firm.
He is a patron of Latimer Creative Media, a social enterprise which trains young people in digital media and a supporter of Cassandra Learning Centre, a charity raising awareness and working to stop domestic violence.
In the May 2010 general election, Chuka was elected to represent Streatham having received 20,037 votes, with the number of votes received by Labour rising from 18,950 in the previous general election in 2005.
In June 2010, he was elected by his parliamentary colleagues to serve on the Treasury Select Committee and in October 2010 was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party.
In May 2011, Chuka was appointed by Ed Miliband as Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise in Labour’s Shadow Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) team.. In this role, he led on small business issues, business support and access to finance, corporate governance, deregulation and economic growth.
In October 2011, Chuka was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. In this role, Mr Umunna leads the Opposition Shadow Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) team, leading for the opposition on a wide range of issues including business, enterprise, science and universities.” (http://www.chuka.org.uk/about-chuka/ May 9, 2015)
Mr Umunna is one of the favourites for the top job.
He is the second to throw his hat into the ring behind shadow care minister Liz Kendall.
Mr Umunna was the first of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet to come out and criticise the campaign, saying it failed to make an “aspirational offer” to “middle income voters”.
Speaking at the weekend, he said: “We cannot have a message that anybody is too rich or too poor to be a part of our party.
“What the Labour Party does well is build a big tent of people of different backgrounds, creeds, colours, races, religions, economic circumstances. And it is when we have an offer that is a big tent and appeals to a lot of people, that’s when we win.”
He also admitted Labour was wrong to run a deficit in advance of the financial crisis – an issue Mr Miliband failed to adequately address after taken to task by a Question Time audience member.
Mr Umunna’s use of Tony Blair’s “big tent” language was doubtless seized on by those in the party who are urging a return to 1997 and saying the break from New Labour in 2010 was a mistake.
A number of former Blairites, including Lord Mandelson, have said the party must return to the centre ground if it is to return to power.
Others within the party say Mr Miliband’s campaign failed because it did not go far enough to the Left.
Harriet Harman has told Sky News she has launched a “fact-finding” mission into what went wrong.
And she warned would-be leaders not to deal in blame and scapegoating but to concentrate on rebuilding the party.
Mr Umunna, a privately educated former City lawyer who has positioned himself centre-Left, has long been tipped for leadership and has enjoyed a sharp rise through the ranks.
He was only elected to his Streatham seat in 2010 and was awarded the business brief a year later.
New Labour architect Lord Mandelson came close to endorsing him for the leadership bid at the weekend, saying: “He’s got a bit of a way to go but will get there.”
And it was reported in the Financial Times that Mr Umunna has enjoyed meetings with Mr Blair.
However, fears have been voiced that he would be a less popular candidate with the unions and considered too metropolitan to appeal to voters in the North.
Liz Kendall announced she would be running for the leadership race at the weekend and admitted Labour’s defeat had been “huge”.
Speaking on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour today she said: “People might think I’m a bit biased in this, but I think it’s maybe time that Labour had a woman leader.
“People like Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman have been the acting leaders of their party, they have blazed a trail and I’d be beyond proud if I was elected as Labour’s leader.”
Dan Jarvis, another Labour MP whose profile had been on the rise, ruled himself out of the leadership race on Monday, saying it was not the right time for his family.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham are also expected to run.
Credit: Sky News
