Chuka Harrison Umunna (/ˈtʃʊkə əˈmuːnə/; born 17 October 1978)[2] is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019, originally elected as the Labour Party candidate. As a former member of the Opposition Shadow Cabinet, he was Shadow Business Secretary from 2011 to 2015. He 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. He stood as the Liberal Democrats' candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency in the 2019 general election, and lost to Nickie Aiken for the Conservatives.
Umunna was educated at St Dunstan's College in Catford in the London Borough of Lewisham, before studying at the University of Manchester and Nottingham Trent University. He worked as a solicitor in the City of London, first for Herbert Smith and then Rochman Landau, while writing articles for the Compass think tank. He joined Labour when the party styled itself as "New Labour" and, when in parliament, he aligned with the party's "Blue Labour" trend, which rejects neoliberal economics. Whilst a member of the Labour Friends of Israel group, he condemned Israel's military courts for their treatment of Palestinian children accused of combat offences.[3]
Umunna was selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Streatham in 2008, and was elected MP in the 2010 general election. A supporter of the unsuccessful campaign to retain UK membership of the European Union in the 2016 referendum, he then campaigned for a referendum on the final deal with the EU.
In 2011, Umunna joined the Shadow Cabinet under Ed Miliband's Labour leadership. In Parliament, he sat on the Treasury Select Committee. He was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general elections. After Miliband's resignation, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader in 2015; Umunna was critical of the party leadership and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet to sit as a backbencher. Umunna resigned from the Labour Party and joined The Independent Group on 18 February 2019. He was announced as TIG group spokesperson, later styled as Change UK,[4] but left Change UK to sit as an independent MP in June 2019 following "disappointing" results in the 2019 European Elections, in which the party had "failed to get a single MEP elected".[5] One week later, Umunna joined the Liberal Democrats and was appointed the Liberal Democrats' Treasury and Business Spokesman by Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Vince Cable. Umunna said that he had "massively underestimated just how difficult" it was to set up a new party, and that under Britain's first past the post voting system, "there isn't room for more than one centre ground" political party.[6]
In September 2019, in his first major speech to the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, Umunna argued that Britain is unable to exert its moral authority against authoritarian leaders in the world, at a time that Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to threaten to break the law over Brexit
Family
Umunna was born in London, England. His father, Bennett, of the Nigerian Igbo ethnic group and owner of an import-export business,[8] died in a road accident in Nigeria in 1992.[9] Umunna's mother, Patricia Milmo, a solicitor, is of English-Irish background.[8][10] Umunna's maternal grandparents were Joan Frances (Morley) and Sir Helenus Milmo QC, a High Court judge.[citation needed]
He is married to Alice Sullivan, an employment lawyer.[11] The couple have a daughter, born in 2017.[12] Umunna is also a Crystal Palace F.C. fan.[citation needed]
Education
Umunna was educated at Hitherfield Primary School in Streatham, South London, and the Christ Church Primary School in Brixton Hill. He says his parents felt that the local state school had "given up on him" and as a result had moved him to the boys' independent senior school St Dunstan's College,[13] in Catford in south-east London, where he played the cello.[14] During this period he was also a chorister at Southwark Cathedral.[15] He was awarded an upper second class LLB in English and French Law from the University of Manchester; after graduating he studied for one term at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, before studying for an MA at Nottingham Trent.[16]
He has said that his politics and moral values come from Christianity, but that he is "not majorly religious".[17][18]
Legal career
After university, in 2005, Umunna began work as a solicitor for the City of London firm Herbert Smith. In 2006 he joined Rochman Landau (now Ashfords LLP), specialising in employment law. From 2006, he began to write and provide commentary on the Labour Party, as well as broader social and economic issues, usually in his capacity as a member of the Management Committee of the Labour-aligned Compass pressure group. He also wrote articles for the Financial Times, Tribune, The Voice, The Guardian and the New Statesman, and began to appear on various radio and television programmes as a commentator.[19][20] He founded and edited the online political magazine, The Multicultural Politic.[21] In 2007, he campaigned in support of Jon Cruddas' unsuccessful bid to become Labour deputy leader.[citation needed]
Political career
Member of Parliament
In March 2008, Umunna was adopted as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Streatham.[22] At the 2010 general election, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham with a 3,259 majority;[23] he gave his maiden speech on 2 June 2010.[24] He took a particular interest in economic policy and reform of the City.
Umunna is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel; along with Liam Byrne, he made an official visit to Israel in October 2012 as part of the LFI's UK-Israel Economic Dialogue group.[25][26][27]
Umunna increased his majority to 13,934 at the 2015 General Election, with 53% of the vote in his constituency.[28]
Umunna has described himself as being "One Nation Labour" and has written articles promoting the "Blue Labour" trend.[29][30] He has also described himself as a "modern European social democrat".[11]
Umunna argued that the Conservative-led Coalition Government (2010–2015) should revise its programme of fiscal consolidation, take a tougher stance with the British banking industry and take action to transform the credit ratings agency market.[31][32][33] Umunna was one of 63 Labour MPs to nominate Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election to succeed Gordon Brown as party leader.[34]
Treasury Select Committee
In June 2010, he was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee.[35] In January 2011, Umunna questioned the chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, 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.[36] In response to a question from Umunna, Diamond stated in February 2011 that Barclays had paid £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009, despite making £11.6bn in profit.[37] Umunna held this position until his appointment to Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise.
Shadow Cabinet
In October 2010, following Miliband's election as party leader, Umunna was appointed to serve as his Parliamentary Private Secretary and, in May 2011, he was appointed to the position of Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise until his promotion to the Shadow Cabinet
Umunna was promoted as Shadow Business Secretary on 7 October 2011, replacing John Denham, who announced his retirement from front-bench politics.[39] Following his appointment, Umunna re-affirmed Labour's commitment to introducing a graduate tax in place of university tuition fees. In January 2012, Umunna joined Ed Miliband and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves in calling on PM David Cameron to block a £1.6m bonus for Stephen Hester, the chief executive officer of the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland Group.[40] During 2013, Umunna led claims that the Government's valuation of the Royal Mail during its privatisation had effectively "shortchanged" the taxpayer, a view supported by the significant rise in the share price following the sale and the subsequent summoning of bankers to a parliamentary investigation.[41][42]
In April 2013, Umunna's law firm was linked to favourable updates made on his Wikipedia page in 2007, which included a reference to him being tipped as the "British Barack Obama".[43][44] In the same month, Umunna was criticised for comments he had made in his mid 20s on the exclusive social network ASmallWorld about the West End of London. Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris said the 2006 comments, describing people visiting nightclubs in the West End as "trash" and "c-list wannabes", showed a "lack of respect for the public"; Umunna stated that the comments were meant to have been "light-hearted in tone and context" but appreciated that "the choice of words used were not appropriate" and apologised for any offence.[45]
Umunna was accused of hypocrisy for accepting a £20,000 gift from a gambling executive despite campaigning against the spread of betting shops in his constituency and promising new powers to limit them.[46]
In early May 2014, Umunna raised concerns in Parliament[47] and public over the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca, by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, on the grounds of ensuring British jobs and interests.[48] Despite assurances from Pfizer, Umunna went on to publicly denounce the proposed takeover proclaiming that Pfizer's assurances were "not worth the paper they were written on".[49] The takeover bid eventually fell through in late May 2014 after the AstraZeneca board rejected Pfizer's final offer.[50]
In May 2014, Umunna criticised fellow Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham's report into possible methods of restricting the sale and advertising of alcohol, unhealthy foods, and tobacco. He was quoted as having said that such courses of action as outlined in the report would be seen to be "anti-business and interventionist".[51]
Umunna 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 the UK Labour Party 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.[52][53][54][55]
Leadership election and withdrawal
See also: Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2015
Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election and the resignation of leader Ed Miliband, Umunna was identified as one of the potential candidates to take over as leader of the party.[56] He called for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters",[57] saying that the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well."[58] On 12 May, he announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership election.[59] 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".[60] On 26 May, he announced his endorsement of Liz Kendall, who was unsuccessful in her bid for the Labour leadership.[61]
Return to the backbenches
In September 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Leader of the Labour Party, Umunna announced his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and returned to the backbenches, citing differences over the Brexit referendum and issues of collective ministerial responsibility.[62][63]
Umunna supported "Remain" in the Brexit referendum.[64] His constituency voted with the highest proportion of votes to remain, with 79.5%. Following the victory for the Leave campaign, Umunna proposed an amendment to the bill to trigger Article 50 calling upon the government to investigate spending £350 million a week on the NHS, which was defeated by the government.[65][66] He subsequently voted for the unmodified bill to leave the EU, writing with Wes Streeting that "as democrats we must abide by the national result".[67] In the 2017 general election campaign Umunna opposed a second referendum on Brexit.[12]
Following his re-election in the 2017 general election, Umunna proposed a rebel amendment to the Queen's Speech calling upon the government to "rule out withdrawal from the EU without a deal" and "set out proposals to remain within the Customs Union and Single Market”.[68] Three Labour frontbenchers were sacked for supporting the defeated amendment, which the Labour leadership argued conflicted with their manifesto commitment to end freedom of movement.[69]
On 15 April 2018, Umunna attended the launch event of the People's Vote, a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union.[70] Umunna favours a second referendum on Brexit. Umunna wrote that the campaign to leave the EU lied during the campaign and also broke the law spending more money than was allowed. Umunna has stated that the British people now know the truth and should have a second say over whether the UK leaves the European Union. In July 2018, Umunna wrote, "If the proposals which the PM is pursuing feel unacceptable to the majority of the electorate, that says something. People voted to leave and to remain for very different reasons, but it’s nonsense to say that every single person who voted for Brexit in the EU referendum did so because they unanimously agreed on leaving the single market and the customs union, putting the Good Friday Agreement at risk, garnering no extra money for the NHS (contrary to what they were told) and potentially continuing years of austerity."[71]
In August 2018, The Guardian reported that "Umunna and fellow Labour MP Chris Leslie are widely believed to be laying the groundwork for the creation of a new [political] party although both have denied this."[72] In October 2018, it was announced that Umunna would serve as the chairman of a new centrist think tank called Progressive Centre UK. It was revealed that he would be earning £65,000 a year for his work on the advisory board.[73]
Change UK
On 18 February 2019, Umunna and six other MPs (Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, and Ann Coffey) quit Labour in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to form The Independent Group (later Change UK).[74] The Independent Group named Umunna as its Spokesman on 28 February 2019.[75]
On 24 May 2019, Umunna wrote in the i newspaper that Change UK would be open to a pro-EU pact with the Liberal Democrats in order to unite the Remain vote.[76][77] On 4 June, after Change UK's poor results in the EU election, Umunna left the party with five of its other MPs who did not wish for Change UK to stand candidates at future elections.[78][79] Subsequently, Change UK's new leader, Anna Soubry, said that Umunna had made a "serious mistake" in leaving the party.[80][81]
Liberal Democrats
On 13 June 2019, Umunna announced to The Times that he would be joining the Liberal Democrats.[82] He told the BBC that he was "wrong" to think "millions of politically homeless people wanted a new party", while referring to moving from Change UK. He also said that he "massively underestimated just how difficult it is to set up a fully fledged new party without an existing infrastructure", after Change UK received a mere 3.4% of the vote in the EU elections, far behind the Liberal Democrats' 20%.[83] Though Umunna had previously been publicly critical of the Liberal Democrats for "enabling Tory austerity" during the 2010 to 2015 coalition government, he told the BBC that "things have changed." He also speculated that a "a good handful" of other MPs may defect to the Liberal Democrats.[84]
At the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Umunna stood in Cities of London and Westminster, and lost.[85] Helen Thompson replaced him as the Lib Dem candidate in Streatham, and also lost
Umunna was educated at St Dunstan's College in Catford in the London Borough of Lewisham, before studying at the University of Manchester and Nottingham Trent University. He worked as a solicitor in the City of London, first for Herbert Smith and then Rochman Landau, while writing articles for the Compass think tank. He joined Labour when the party styled itself as "New Labour" and, when in parliament, he aligned with the party's "Blue Labour" trend, which rejects neoliberal economics. Whilst a member of the Labour Friends of Israel group, he condemned Israel's military courts for their treatment of Palestinian children accused of combat offences.[3]
Umunna was selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Streatham in 2008, and was elected MP in the 2010 general election. A supporter of the unsuccessful campaign to retain UK membership of the European Union in the 2016 referendum, he then campaigned for a referendum on the final deal with the EU.
In 2011, Umunna joined the Shadow Cabinet under Ed Miliband's Labour leadership. In Parliament, he sat on the Treasury Select Committee. He was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general elections. After Miliband's resignation, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader in 2015; Umunna was critical of the party leadership and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet to sit as a backbencher. Umunna resigned from the Labour Party and joined The Independent Group on 18 February 2019. He was announced as TIG group spokesperson, later styled as Change UK,[4] but left Change UK to sit as an independent MP in June 2019 following "disappointing" results in the 2019 European Elections, in which the party had "failed to get a single MEP elected".[5] One week later, Umunna joined the Liberal Democrats and was appointed the Liberal Democrats' Treasury and Business Spokesman by Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Vince Cable. Umunna said that he had "massively underestimated just how difficult" it was to set up a new party, and that under Britain's first past the post voting system, "there isn't room for more than one centre ground" political party.[6]
In September 2019, in his first major speech to the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, Umunna argued that Britain is unable to exert its moral authority against authoritarian leaders in the world, at a time that Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to threaten to break the law over Brexit
Family
Umunna was born in London, England. His father, Bennett, of the Nigerian Igbo ethnic group and owner of an import-export business,[8] died in a road accident in Nigeria in 1992.[9] Umunna's mother, Patricia Milmo, a solicitor, is of English-Irish background.[8][10] Umunna's maternal grandparents were Joan Frances (Morley) and Sir Helenus Milmo QC, a High Court judge.[citation needed]
He is married to Alice Sullivan, an employment lawyer.[11] The couple have a daughter, born in 2017.[12] Umunna is also a Crystal Palace F.C. fan.[citation needed]
Education
Umunna was educated at Hitherfield Primary School in Streatham, South London, and the Christ Church Primary School in Brixton Hill. He says his parents felt that the local state school had "given up on him" and as a result had moved him to the boys' independent senior school St Dunstan's College,[13] in Catford in south-east London, where he played the cello.[14] During this period he was also a chorister at Southwark Cathedral.[15] He was awarded an upper second class LLB in English and French Law from the University of Manchester; after graduating he studied for one term at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, before studying for an MA at Nottingham Trent.[16]
He has said that his politics and moral values come from Christianity, but that he is "not majorly religious".[17][18]
Legal career
After university, in 2005, Umunna began work as a solicitor for the City of London firm Herbert Smith. In 2006 he joined Rochman Landau (now Ashfords LLP), specialising in employment law. From 2006, he began to write and provide commentary on the Labour Party, as well as broader social and economic issues, usually in his capacity as a member of the Management Committee of the Labour-aligned Compass pressure group. He also wrote articles for the Financial Times, Tribune, The Voice, The Guardian and the New Statesman, and began to appear on various radio and television programmes as a commentator.[19][20] He founded and edited the online political magazine, The Multicultural Politic.[21] In 2007, he campaigned in support of Jon Cruddas' unsuccessful bid to become Labour deputy leader.[citation needed]
Political career
Member of Parliament
In March 2008, Umunna was adopted as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Streatham.[22] At the 2010 general election, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham with a 3,259 majority;[23] he gave his maiden speech on 2 June 2010.[24] He took a particular interest in economic policy and reform of the City.
Umunna is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel; along with Liam Byrne, he made an official visit to Israel in October 2012 as part of the LFI's UK-Israel Economic Dialogue group.[25][26][27]
Umunna increased his majority to 13,934 at the 2015 General Election, with 53% of the vote in his constituency.[28]
Umunna has described himself as being "One Nation Labour" and has written articles promoting the "Blue Labour" trend.[29][30] He has also described himself as a "modern European social democrat".[11]
Umunna argued that the Conservative-led Coalition Government (2010–2015) should revise its programme of fiscal consolidation, take a tougher stance with the British banking industry and take action to transform the credit ratings agency market.[31][32][33] Umunna was one of 63 Labour MPs to nominate Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election to succeed Gordon Brown as party leader.[34]
Treasury Select Committee
In June 2010, he was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee.[35] In January 2011, Umunna questioned the chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, 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.[36] In response to a question from Umunna, Diamond stated in February 2011 that Barclays had paid £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009, despite making £11.6bn in profit.[37] Umunna held this position until his appointment to Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise.
Shadow Cabinet
In October 2010, following Miliband's election as party leader, Umunna was appointed to serve as his Parliamentary Private Secretary and, in May 2011, he was appointed to the position of Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise until his promotion to the Shadow Cabinet
Umunna was promoted as Shadow Business Secretary on 7 October 2011, replacing John Denham, who announced his retirement from front-bench politics.[39] Following his appointment, Umunna re-affirmed Labour's commitment to introducing a graduate tax in place of university tuition fees. In January 2012, Umunna joined Ed Miliband and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves in calling on PM David Cameron to block a £1.6m bonus for Stephen Hester, the chief executive officer of the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland Group.[40] During 2013, Umunna led claims that the Government's valuation of the Royal Mail during its privatisation had effectively "shortchanged" the taxpayer, a view supported by the significant rise in the share price following the sale and the subsequent summoning of bankers to a parliamentary investigation.[41][42]
In April 2013, Umunna's law firm was linked to favourable updates made on his Wikipedia page in 2007, which included a reference to him being tipped as the "British Barack Obama".[43][44] In the same month, Umunna was criticised for comments he had made in his mid 20s on the exclusive social network ASmallWorld about the West End of London. Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris said the 2006 comments, describing people visiting nightclubs in the West End as "trash" and "c-list wannabes", showed a "lack of respect for the public"; Umunna stated that the comments were meant to have been "light-hearted in tone and context" but appreciated that "the choice of words used were not appropriate" and apologised for any offence.[45]
Umunna was accused of hypocrisy for accepting a £20,000 gift from a gambling executive despite campaigning against the spread of betting shops in his constituency and promising new powers to limit them.[46]
In early May 2014, Umunna raised concerns in Parliament[47] and public over the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca, by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, on the grounds of ensuring British jobs and interests.[48] Despite assurances from Pfizer, Umunna went on to publicly denounce the proposed takeover proclaiming that Pfizer's assurances were "not worth the paper they were written on".[49] The takeover bid eventually fell through in late May 2014 after the AstraZeneca board rejected Pfizer's final offer.[50]
In May 2014, Umunna criticised fellow Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham's report into possible methods of restricting the sale and advertising of alcohol, unhealthy foods, and tobacco. He was quoted as having said that such courses of action as outlined in the report would be seen to be "anti-business and interventionist".[51]
Umunna 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 the UK Labour Party 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.[52][53][54][55]
Leadership election and withdrawal
See also: Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2015
Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election and the resignation of leader Ed Miliband, Umunna was identified as one of the potential candidates to take over as leader of the party.[56] He called for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters",[57] saying that the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well."[58] On 12 May, he announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership election.[59] 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".[60] On 26 May, he announced his endorsement of Liz Kendall, who was unsuccessful in her bid for the Labour leadership.[61]
Return to the backbenches
In September 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Leader of the Labour Party, Umunna announced his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and returned to the backbenches, citing differences over the Brexit referendum and issues of collective ministerial responsibility.[62][63]
Umunna supported "Remain" in the Brexit referendum.[64] His constituency voted with the highest proportion of votes to remain, with 79.5%. Following the victory for the Leave campaign, Umunna proposed an amendment to the bill to trigger Article 50 calling upon the government to investigate spending £350 million a week on the NHS, which was defeated by the government.[65][66] He subsequently voted for the unmodified bill to leave the EU, writing with Wes Streeting that "as democrats we must abide by the national result".[67] In the 2017 general election campaign Umunna opposed a second referendum on Brexit.[12]
Following his re-election in the 2017 general election, Umunna proposed a rebel amendment to the Queen's Speech calling upon the government to "rule out withdrawal from the EU without a deal" and "set out proposals to remain within the Customs Union and Single Market”.[68] Three Labour frontbenchers were sacked for supporting the defeated amendment, which the Labour leadership argued conflicted with their manifesto commitment to end freedom of movement.[69]
On 15 April 2018, Umunna attended the launch event of the People's Vote, a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union.[70] Umunna favours a second referendum on Brexit. Umunna wrote that the campaign to leave the EU lied during the campaign and also broke the law spending more money than was allowed. Umunna has stated that the British people now know the truth and should have a second say over whether the UK leaves the European Union. In July 2018, Umunna wrote, "If the proposals which the PM is pursuing feel unacceptable to the majority of the electorate, that says something. People voted to leave and to remain for very different reasons, but it’s nonsense to say that every single person who voted for Brexit in the EU referendum did so because they unanimously agreed on leaving the single market and the customs union, putting the Good Friday Agreement at risk, garnering no extra money for the NHS (contrary to what they were told) and potentially continuing years of austerity."[71]
In August 2018, The Guardian reported that "Umunna and fellow Labour MP Chris Leslie are widely believed to be laying the groundwork for the creation of a new [political] party although both have denied this."[72] In October 2018, it was announced that Umunna would serve as the chairman of a new centrist think tank called Progressive Centre UK. It was revealed that he would be earning £65,000 a year for his work on the advisory board.[73]
Change UK
On 18 February 2019, Umunna and six other MPs (Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, and Ann Coffey) quit Labour in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to form The Independent Group (later Change UK).[74] The Independent Group named Umunna as its Spokesman on 28 February 2019.[75]
On 24 May 2019, Umunna wrote in the i newspaper that Change UK would be open to a pro-EU pact with the Liberal Democrats in order to unite the Remain vote.[76][77] On 4 June, after Change UK's poor results in the EU election, Umunna left the party with five of its other MPs who did not wish for Change UK to stand candidates at future elections.[78][79] Subsequently, Change UK's new leader, Anna Soubry, said that Umunna had made a "serious mistake" in leaving the party.[80][81]
Liberal Democrats
On 13 June 2019, Umunna announced to The Times that he would be joining the Liberal Democrats.[82] He told the BBC that he was "wrong" to think "millions of politically homeless people wanted a new party", while referring to moving from Change UK. He also said that he "massively underestimated just how difficult it is to set up a fully fledged new party without an existing infrastructure", after Change UK received a mere 3.4% of the vote in the EU elections, far behind the Liberal Democrats' 20%.[83] Though Umunna had previously been publicly critical of the Liberal Democrats for "enabling Tory austerity" during the 2010 to 2015 coalition government, he told the BBC that "things have changed." He also speculated that a "a good handful" of other MPs may defect to the Liberal Democrats.[84]
At the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Umunna stood in Cities of London and Westminster, and lost.[85] Helen Thompson replaced him as the Lib Dem candidate in Streatham, and also lost
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