Chuka Umunna Declares Intention To Run For Labour Leadership In UK

Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent
Chuka Umunna has confirmed he will run for the
leadership of the Labour party, pitching himself as
a Blairite candidate.
The shadow business secretary is the second
person to say he will run, following Liz Kendall
the shadow social care minister.
Mr Umunna has said he wanted to build a “big
tent” of people from different backgrounds, races,
religions and economic circumstances.
He published a Facebook video on Tuesday
claiming the Labour party could return to power
by the next general election under the right
leadership. The video was shot in Swindon, the
Wiltshire town where the Conservatives launched
their election manifesto and which elected two of
the party’s MPs in last week’s general election.
“I think we can and we should be winning in
seats like Swindon,” he said.
Mr Umunna began his political career as a
member of Compass, a leftwing pressure group.
But the privately educated former City lawyer has
since shifted to a more Blairite position,
eschewing former leader Ed Miliband’s rhetoric
that businesses could be divided into predators
and producers.
As shadow business secretary, Mr Umunna has
spent the past few years trying to mend bridges
with business even as his leader was — in the
view of some executives — setting fire to them.
Despite having a limited number of allies among
Labour MPs, he should be able to reach the
requisite 35 — 15 per cent — to reach the ballot
“Some have actually suggested over the past few
days that somehow this is now a 10-year project
to get the Labour party back in office,” he said. “I
don’t think we can have any truck with that at all,
I think the Labour party can do it in five years.”
Mr Umunna, the bookmakers’ favourite for the
top job, was the first former shadow cabinet
member to criticise Labour’s election campaign
after the event.
In an interview on Sunday he said: “We cannot
have a message that anybody is too rich or too
poor to be a part of our party.” He also admitted
Labour was wrong to run a deficit in advance of
the financial crisis.
In recent days several Blairite figures, including
Lord Mandelson, have made the case for Labour
to return to the centre ground.
Lord Mandelson came close to backing Mr
Umunna, saying: “He’s got a bit of a way to go
but will get there.”
But Harriet Harman, acting leader, has called for
an end to blame and scapegoating and launched
a “fact-finding” mission into what went wrong.
Other likely candidates include Andy Burnham,
shadow health secretary, who is expected to win
the backing of the unions.
Tristram Hunt, shadow education secretary, and
Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, are also
expected to run.
Dan Jarvis, another Labour MP, ruled himself out
of the race on Monday.
Labour’s national executive committee will meet
this week to thrash out the rules of the contest
while the unions are racing to sign up “affiliated
supporters” who can take part in the voting.
Meanwhile, the repercussions of the party’s defeat
continued to reverberate in Scotland, where it lost
all but one of its 40 seats.
Alex Rowley, a member of the Scottish
Parliament, stepped down as the party’s
spokesman on local government in Holyrood in
protest at Jim Murphy’s continuation as Labour
leader in Scotland.
“We in Scotland need a strong relevant Labour
party and we will not achieve this under your
leadership,” he wrote in a letter to Mr Murphy.