No one knew who was going to break away from the Labour party on Monday morning. But when the seven disenchanted MPs solemnly filed into their press conference, there was one figure who was both expected and instantly recognised.
Chuka Umunna is the chief convener and rallying force behind the most significant schism in British leftwing politics for nearly four decades. The split would not have happened without him.
The newly christened Independent Group has yet to decide how it will elect its leader. When it does, the 40-year-old member for Streatham is the favourite to become the figurehead, although two other breakaway MPs, Chris Leslie and Luciana Berger, are vying for the position.
Ms Berger, who is expecting her second child, may pose the greatest challenge (she launched the breakaway group while Mr Umunna watched on). The group may conclude it needs a female leader, given that their former party has always been led by men. If not, Mr Umunna is the more obvious choice.
Born in 1978, Mr Umunna is of Nigerian, English and Irish heritage. He was brought up in the south London suburb he represents in parliament. After attending Manchester and Nottingham Trent universities, he had a brief career in employment law. In his late twenties he emerged as a prominent Labour campaigner. By the age of 30 he had been adopted by the party as its candidate for Streatham. He was duly elected in 2010 with a comfortable majority.
Nine years on, Mr Umunna’s true beliefs remain somewhat ambiguous. Prior to his career in elected office, he was on the management committee of Compass, a leftwing pressure group critical of Tony Blair’s governments. He was also associated with the “Blue Labour” movement, which aimed to reconnect the party with its provincial working-class electorate.
Soon after he entered parliament he began his journey towards the political centre. As he made his name in Westminster — first as a backbench MP and then as a core member of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet — he came to be labelled a “Blairite”, now one of the harshest insults for a Labour MP. His leading role in the Independent Group is the culmination of that political journey.
“I completely admire his bravery. It is not an easy thing to do to walk away, although I think they’re misguided,” said Neal Lawson, who chairs Compass. “But what is perplexing is the speed and scale of the shift Chuka has made in his politics. He’s clever and charming but it is hard to think how you can therefore maintain deep intellectual roots.”
Before Mr Umunna was elected to the Commons, he was described by the New Statesman magazine as “Barack Obama for Britain”. He has rare qualities for a British politician: charisma and star appeal. He is an engaging television performer; savvy on social media; and always armed with a pertinent thought. To some in the Labour movement, however, his rapid rise is not born out of campaigning graft.
One Labour party stalwart described an episode of how Mr Umunna failed to live up to expectations at a Labour fundraiser before the 2015 general election. Speaking at the dinner in Leeds, he “starts talking about how great the buses are around here, where it was obvious he never goes on buses. He then went on to try and applaud each of the local candidates but clearly had no idea of who they were. To say he fluffed it doesn’t do it justice: it was terrible.”
“I have met him 10, 15, 20 times. He still has no idea who I am,” said the party insider. “You cannot be a successful top-flight politician and act like that. Everybody in the room realised that night he doesn’t have ‘it’.”
Others in his former party see him differently. “He was a Labour member before he arrived at university. There was nothing contrived about Chuka’s politics,” said a parliamentary colleague. “Chuka is a democratic socialist: Keynesian in economics, a believer in public services. Sure, his interpretations have changed but are still within a traditional Labour party position. That was until yesterday.”
Tristram Hunt, formerly a Labour MP and now director of the V&A Museum, added: “He’s a clever man but he also put the hours in. He shouldn’t be regarded as dipping in and out of the hard work of politics.”
Until his decision to leave Labour, Mr Umunna looked set to go down as another politician who failed to meet his early potential. After Ed Miliband lost the 2015 election and resigned from the leadership, Mr Umunna launched his own bid and soon became the bookmakers’ favourite to win. Three days later he abruptly pulled out, citing the “pressure” and “uncomfortable” levels of personal scrutiny. He has never elaborated.
He exited the shadow cabinet after Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader and became one of his harshest critics. While on the backbenches he focused on his personal life, marrying Alice Sullivan, a fellow employment lawyer, just weeks before the Brexit referendum. It was the surprise victory for the Leave campaign that propelled him back on to the front line.
Mr Corbyn may have acquiesced to the referendum result but Mr Umunna has not. An estimated 80 per cent of his constituency voted to remain in the EU, providing handy cover to campaign for another referendum. He soon returned to being a constant media presence: calling for another plebiscite in opinion articles, television appearances and social media campaigns. It was Brexit, above all else, that drove Mr Umunna out of Labour.
For his mentor Peter Mandelson, the New Labour spin-doctor and strategist, the last two years have instilled Mr Umunna with political purpose once more.
“Brexit has given him an informal leadership role . . . at a time when we needed someone of a younger generation in Labour to lead the charge against Brexit, Chuka stepped forward. He took hold of the issue and gave it time, welly and energy.”
His position as one of the country’s most ardent advocates of the so-called People’s Vote may have also helped prepare him for breaking away from Labour. “It helped him realise how damaged the existing party structures are, an awakening of how we need to do politics differently.” said Lord Mandelson.
“Over the past 18 months he has became much more self-aware and collegiate. He has brought anti-Brexit campaigners together with considerable skill. It will certainly come in use for what he has to do next.”
