Chuka shows his hand as Left plots to stop him
CHUKA Umunna launched his Labour leadership bid yesterday in the face of a left-wing campaign to give Yvette Cooper the job instead.
The 36-year-old is the second candidate to put himself forward to replace Ed Miliband, who resigned on Friday after taking Labour to its third worst defeat since the Second World War.
Announcing his move on Facebook, Mr Umunna said Labour needed to change radically to have any chance of winning ‘north, south, east and west’.
His comments came in an amateurish video, recorded on a street in Swindon, and used to counter the claim he is too smooth and focused on London.
Liz Kendall has said she will stand and Miss Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is expected to launch her leadership campaign in the next few days – possibly as soon as tomorrow.
Brownites in the party are set to throw their weight behind her as part of a ‘Stop Chuka’ campaign.
One Brownite MP said it appeared that she might win the support of many union members ahead of health spokes- man Andy Burnham, who has assiduously courted them.
‘It’s anyone but Chuka – the idea he is going to connect with ordinary Labour voters is a joke,’ one MP said.
‘Burnham is going to have Mid-Staffs hung round his neck for the rest of his life, so it’s got to be Yvette.’
Labour has changed its voting system to choose a leader – ending the old system under which union members had a guaranteed third of the vote.
Under the new rules, union members will have to specifically opt in to be an ‘affiliate member’.
But last night, GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said the unions expected still to be able to muster almost a third of the estimated 350,000 electors – giving them the same degree of influence.
Mr Umunna’s candidacy came as no surprise, especially after he was pictured in public for the first time on Sunday hand in hand with his new girlfriend, Alice Sullivan.
Yesterday he said he believed Labour could win power in 2020.
‘Of the 80 Conservative seats we were targeting, we made a net gain of just four last Thursday,’ he said. ‘We have got to do better than that if we are to win next time.
‘We can and we should be winning in seats like Swindon. North, south, east, west – we can absolutely do it.
‘Some have suggested over the past few days this is now a ten-year project to get the Labour Party back into office. I don’t think we can have any truck with that at all.
‘The Labour Party can do it in five years. I want to lead that effort as part of a really big team, getting Labour back into office, changing this country and building a fairer, more equal society. That is why we all joined the party.’
Mr Umunna is a former lawyer and MP for Streatham in south London, a seat he won with a 53 per cent vote share. But one Labour MP said he represented a return to the failures of Ed Miliband. ‘There’s an arrogance to him and I don’t think he’d be suited to being Labour leader,’ the MP said. ‘Chuka is part of a wellto-do London elite which doesn’t suit the rest of the country.’
Mr Burnham is expected to launch his campaign toward the end of the week.
Stella Creasy, Tom Watson, Caroline Flint, Ben Bradshaw and Angela Eagle are all expected to stand for the deputy leadership.
Former minister Alan Milburn said Labour lost last week because ‘we were trying to defy the laws of political gravity’ – trying to win despite being behind on both political leadership and economic competence.
‘Defying laws of political gravity’