Chuka Umunna

Chuka Umunna
Born	Chuka Harrison Umunna 17 October 1978 London, England
Alma mater	University of Manchester, Nottingham Trent University
Religion	Christianity
Spouse	Alice Sullivan
Member of	European Council on Foreign Relations, WEF/Young Global Leaders/2011
Party	Liberal Democrats, Change UK, Labour Party
UK Labour politician, then Edelman and JPMorgan Chase .  Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs In office 21 August 2019 - 13 December 2019  Member In office 26 October 2015 - February 2019 Employer Home Affairs Select Committee  Shadow Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills In office 7 October 2011 - 13 September 2015 Succeeded by Angela Eagle  Member of Parliament for Streatham In office 6 May 2010 - 6 November 2019

Chuka Umunna is a British politician who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham since the UK/2010 General Election. He was picked as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in2011, the same year he was chosen as Shadow Business Secretary, until 2015. He was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 26 October 2015 to February 2019.

In July 2020 Umunna was appointed executive director and head of the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) consultancy within the capital markets and financial services team at the spooky public relations firm Edelman UK,.

Background

Chuka Umunna's grandfather on the maternal side was Helenus Milmo, a wartime MI5 officer and torturist and later a prominent judge.

From Labour to LibDem

Chuka Umunna was a member of the Labour Party until February 2019, when he resigned to form The Independent Group (later renamed Change UK) along with six other MPs. He left Change UK in June 2019 and, after a short time as an Independent MP, joined the Liberal Democrats.

On 21 August 2019, Chuka Umunna tweeted:

"I'm absolutely delighted and honoured to have been appointed by @JoSwinson as the @LibDems new Shadow Foreign Secretary, scrutinising the work of @DominicRaab and the @ForeignOffice."

Paul Mason responded on Twitter:

"Now stand down and call a by-election so that the people of Streatham can endorse your delusional new appointment!"

On 12 December 2019, when Chuka Umunna stood in the UK/2019 General Election as the LibDem candidate in the Cities of London & Westminster constituency, he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Nickie Aiken with a majority of 3,953 votes.

Promoting a federal state

Chuka Ummuna has argued for a British federal state on multiple occasions, and has said that progressives should not dismiss George Osborne's notion of a Northern Powerhouse, arguing that greater devolution, federalisation of Labour into individual Labour Parties representing each component nation of the UK, greater political autonomy for England in particular, more regional powers and "wholescale federalisation" are necessary to advance the Labour Party.

Labour leadership

Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 General Election and the resignation of leader Ed Miliband, Chuka Umunna was identified as one of the potential candidates to take over as Leader of the Labour Party. He called for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters", saying that the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well." On 12 May 2015, he announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership election. Three days later, he withdrew from the contest, stating that he had been "uncomfortable" with "the added level of scrutiny that came with being a leadership candidate". On 26 May 2015, he announced his endorsement of Liz Kendall, who was unsuccessful in her bid for the Labour leadership.

In September 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party, Umunna announced his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and returned to the backbenches, citing differences over a Brexit referendum and issues of collective ministerial responsibility.

'American Jeremy Corbyn'

Chuka Umunna was reported to have held a secret meeting in July 2015 with Hillary Clinton’s campaign team to advise her on how to beat Bernie Sanders, her Democratic rival for the presidency dubbed the 'American Jeremy Corbyn'.

Antisemitism

Following publication in October 2016 of the Home Affairs Select Committee report on "Antisemitism in the UK", which was highly critical of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, the Free Speech on Israel group wrote:

"Labour is the target throughout this ill-conceived and politically tendentious Report. It immediately begins with the suspension of Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone and others for 'antisemitism’. Since no one has been tried or found guilty of ‘antisemitism’ one can only assume that the presumption of innocence has been abandoned by lawyer Chuka Umunna and his Tory friends."

Banking

On 12 April 2021 Umunna joined the investment bank JPMorgan Chase to oversee its ESG advisory efforts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Manufacturing consent on "antisemitism"	article	20 October 2016	Tony Greenstein	Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party is the target throughout this ill-conceived, politically tendentious and risible Home Affairs Select Committee report entitled "Antisemitism in the UK". The presumption of innocence has been abandoned by lawyer Chuka Umunna and his Tory friends.
Document:The Unprincipled – and Potentially Racist – Lib Dems	blog post	13 September 2019	Craig Murray	If LibDem candidate Clareine Enderby is indeed replaced by Luciana Berger she will be a victim of racism, as the sole grounds on which Ms Berger is being touted as preferable for the 20% Jewish Finchley and Golders Green constituency is her ethnicity.

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