- Chuka Umunna
-
Chuka Umunna MP 
Umunna in 2009 Shadow Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation and SkillsIncumbent Assumed office
7 October 2011Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by John Denham Member of Parliament
for StreathamIncumbent Assumed office
6 May 2010Preceded by Keith Hill Majority 3,259 (7.0%) Personal details Born 17 October 1978 Nationality British Political party Labour Relations Sir Helenus Milmo, QC
(High Court judge – grandfather)
Patrick Milmo
(libel lawyer – uncle)Alma mater University of Manchester
University of Burgundy
Nottingham Law SchoolOccupation MP Profession Lawyer Website Official website Chuka Harrison Umunna (pronounced /ˈtʃʊkə ʊˈmʊnə/;[1] born 17 October 1978[2]) is a British Labour Party politician and employment lawyer. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham since 2010. After less than 18 months in Parliament, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary by Labour Leader Ed Miliband on 7 October 2011.[3] Umunna has described himself as being "One Nation Labour" and has written articles promoting the Blue Labour trend within the Labour Party.[4][5]
Contents
Education
Umunna was educated at Hitherfield Primary School in Streatham, south London, at the voluntary aided Christ Church C of E Primary School (Cotherstone Road) in the Brixton Hill area of Streatham;[6] and at the independent secondary school St. Dunstan's College in Catford in south-east London. He obtained a 2:1 degree in English and French Law from the University of Manchester and then studied at the University of Burgundy in Dijon in France, and Nottingham Law School in Nottingham.[7]
Family history
Umunna has a Nigerian father and an English-Irish mother.[8] He is the grandson of High Court Judge Sir Helenus Milmo, QC. Umunna is also the nephew of libel lawyer Patrick Milmo.[9]
Career
Having completed his studies in 2002, Umunna started his legal career as a solicitor at the international law firm, Herbert Smith, in the City of London where as a solicitor Umunna mostly acted for large companies. In 2006, he moved to the central London law firm, Rochman Landau, where he mainly acted for individuals and small and medium sized companies. As an employment lawyer, Umunna often spoke in the media on employment issues.[10][11]
From 2006 Umunna began to write and provide commentary on the Labour Party, economic, social and political issues. Umunna often did so in his capacity as a member of the management committee of centre-left pressure group, Compass. He wrote for the Financial Times,[12] Tribune, The Voice, The Guardian and the New Statesman[13], and he frequently appears on television and radio including on The Daily Politics on BBC Two and Question Time Extra on BBC News 24. He founded and is the former editor of the online political magazine, TMP, which is primarily aimed at Labour-supporting ethnic-minority Britons. Contributors to the site include Lady Prosser, David Lammy MP, Keith Vaz MP and Jon Cruddas MP (Umunna was a campaign aide to Cruddas during his Labour Party Deputy Leadership campaign).
Umunna was formerly a trustee of the Anthony Bourne Foundation and the 409 Project. He is still a member of the Board of youth charity the Generation Next Foundation, alongside Martin Offiah, Leo Ihenacho and Rikki Beadle-Blair.[14] In August 2007, Umunna was quoted[15] in the wake of the numerous killings of teenagers in Britain linked to gangs and violence in urban Britain. His comments[16] that the problems of young people living in the inner cities are linked to the wealth divide and increasing consumerism were widely reported.[16].
He challenged former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie for making remarks about former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the BBC's Question Time television programme in October 2007, on which they were both panellists.[17]
In November 2007, Umunna was identified as one of ten young, gifted and black people in British politics in The Independent on Sunday by Simon Woolley, director of Operation Black Vote. Woolley said Umunna "may end up as the UK's Barack Obama".[18] In a February 2008 edition of the New Statesman, he was referred to in an article entitled "Is there a British Obama?".[19]
In March 2008, Umunna was chosen by local Labour Party members as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for the Streatham constituency in London, following the announcement of the retirement of Keith Hill.
He was again described in the New Statesman as "a Barack Obama for Britain" [20], a comparison Umunna later came to disparage.[21] He was also one of the individuals selected for The Observer's January 2009 Hotlist, which highlighted people set to make a mark over the coming year.[22]
In May 2009, he was chosen to be part of a panel of ten figures from across the political spectrum addressing the question: How do we restore the reputation of Parliament? by The Independent following the expenses crisis.[23]
In January 2010, he was named by The Independent as one the Labour politicians making the best use of microblogging website Twitter as a communication tool.[24]
Member of Parliament
Umunna delivered his maiden speech on 2 June 2010, highlighting the need for new school building projects in his constituency, and calling for better financial regulation of the banking sector.[25]
Umunna has taken a particular interest in economic policy and reform of the City since entering Parliament. He was subsequently elected by his colleagues to serve on the prestigious Treasury Select Committee.[26] In July 2010, Umunna had a heated exchange with Chancellor George Osborne over the Chancellor's first Budget and its impact on the poorest in society at a Committee hearing.[27] This was followed in November 2010 by a similar exchange with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.[28] Umunna has argued that the coalition government should revise its programme of fiscal consolidation[29], take a tougher stance with the British banking industry[30] and take action to transform the credit ratings agency market.[31] In January 2011, Umunna questioned the Chief Executive of Barclays Plc in relation to alleged tax avoidance activities by the bank during which he disclosed that the bank used over 300 subsidiary companies in offshore jurisdictions.[32] In response to a question from Umunna, Bob Diamond wrote in February 2011 to say that Barclays had paid £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009, during which it made £11.6bn profits worldwide.[33]
Umunna was one of 73 Labour MPs to nominate Ed Miliband, the successful candidate, in the 2010 Labour leadership election to find a successor to Gordon Brown.[34] From 10 October 2010 to 23 May 2011, Umunna served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband, along with Anne McGuire, until he was appointed as Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise under the Shadow Business Secretary John Denham. He was replaced in the earlier role by Michael Dugher. On 11 July 2011 he became involved in a confrontation in a Commons committee room with Alan Sugar over Lord Sugar's view on bank lending. [35] Umunna was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary on 7 October 2011, replacing John Denham, who announced his retirement from front-bench politics.[36]
References
- ^ Wells, John C. (11 February 2011). "Chuka Umunna". Phonetic blog. http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2011/02/chuka-umunna.html. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ "Chuka Umunna MP". BBC Democracy Live (BBC). http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/representatives/profiles/72314.stm. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Labour appoints fresh face to replace John Denham as business shadow from Times Higher Education
- ^ http://www.chuka.org.uk/2011/05/one-nation-labour/
- ^ http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/05/chuka-umunna-my-vision-for-one-nation-labour/
- ^ Profile of Chuka Umunna from This Is Local London
- ^ Profile of Chuka Umunna from Operation Black Vote
- ^ Chuka Umunna MP » About Chuka
- ^ Landon-Down, Grania (06-02-21). "Black lawyers' directory to improve diversity". London: The Times. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article732178.ece. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- ^ Black Lawyers Directory Profile
- ^ “Inequality costs £1m per hour”, Personnel Today, 20 September 2007
- ^ Umunna, Chuka, “Ask the expert: Diversity in the City”, Financial Times, 11 September 2006
- ^ Umunna, Chuka, “The duty to inspire”, New Statesman, 30 August 2007
- ^ Generation Next Committee
- ^ Womack, Sarah, “Black boys need role models not rappers”, The Telegraph, 14 August 2007
- ^ a b Umunna, Chuka, “In our inner cities, gangs are the new extended families”, The Guardian, 9 August 2007
- ^ Akbar, Arifa, “Former 'Sun' editor MacKenzie outrages Scots”, The Independent, 27 October 2007
- ^ Woolley, Simon, “Young, gifted and black: Politics choices”, The Independent on Sunday, 4 November 2007
- ^ Matthews, David, “Is there a British Obama?”, The New Statesman, 7 February 2008
- ^ Martin Bright, New Statesman 8 January 2009
- ^ “The Guardian”, August 2009
- ^ The 2009 Hotlist, The Guardian
- ^ Reform now: 10 ways to save our system, The Independent
- ^ Tweet democracy: Who are the best Westminster warblers?
- ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 02 Jun 2010 (pt 0015)
- ^ Treasury Committee - membership - UK Parliament
- ^ Inman, Phillip (15 July 2010). "George Osborne offers MPs veto on choice of next budget watchdog". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/15/alan-budd-budget-george-osborne.
- ^ Sparrow, Andrew (3 November 2010). "Politics live blog + PMQs". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/nov/03/politics-live-blog-pmqs.
- ^ New Statesman - The man’s not for turning
- ^ New Clause 3 — Bank taxation: 8 Nov 2010: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou
- ^ Credit Rating Agencies: 16 Nov 2010: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou
- ^ O'Hare, Sean (17 January 2011). "Labour MP urges Barclay's chief to reduce offshore subsidaries [sic]". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/8263845/Labour-MP-urges-Barclays-chief-to-reduce-offshore-subsidaries.html.
- ^ Treannor, Jill (18 February 2011). "Barclays bank forced to admit it paid just £113m in corporation tax in 2009". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/18/barclays-bank-113m-corporation-tax.
- ^ "Ed Miliband: Nominations". labour.co.uk. http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-candidates/2/Ed_Miliband. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- ^ Daily Mail. "Row over Ed Milibands favourite MP". http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013042/Alan-Sugar-Labours-biggest-donor-row-Ed-Milibands-favourite-MP.html.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15212234
External links
- Chuka Umunna MP official constituency website
- Streatham Labour
- TMP Online
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
- Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
- Voting record at PublicWhip.org
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
- Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
- Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
- Articles authored at Journalisted
- Article archive at The Guardian
- Chuka Umunna - Operation Black Vote profile
Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded by
Keith HillMember of Parliament for Streatham
2010-presentIncumbent Political offices Preceded by
John DenhamShadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
2011-presentIncumbent Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet Leadership Shadow Cabinet Members Also attends meetings Categories:- 1978 births
- Living people
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- UK MPs 2010–
- British writers
- English solicitors
- People from Streatham
- Black British politicians
- English people of Irish descent
- English people of Igbo descent
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