Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?</tle><meta name="tle" ntent="Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?" /><meta name="scriptn" ntent="Handsome, amb, urbane: four years ago, Cha Umunna was all set to be the next lear of the Labour Party — Bra’s Obama, our Macron, our T. But he pulled out of the learship ntt 2015 and he's been the wilrns ever sce, a lonely liberal centrist left behd by a polarised Parliament. Is there a way back for the former future of Brish polics? 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Is there a way back for the former future of Brish polics?" /><meta name="robots" ntent="max-image-preview:large,max-snippet:-1,max-vio-preview:30" /><lk rel="apple-touch-in" href="/_assets/sign-tokens/quire/static/imag/" /><meta property="og:image" ntent="" /><meta property="og:image:width" ntent="1200" /><meta property="og:image:height" ntent="600" /><meta name="thumbnail" ntent="" /><meta name="" ntent="" /><meta name="" ntent=" /><meta name="twter:image" ntent="" /><meta ntent=" property="og:url" /><meta name="to-publish" ntent="timely" /><meta property="og:type" ntent="article" /><meta name="twter:rd" ntent="summary_large_image" /><meta name="article:opn" property="article:opn" /><meta ntent="Culture" property="article:sectn" /><meta ntent="2019-02-20T12:59:23Z" property="article:modified_time" /><meta ntent="2019-02-20T12:49:00Z" property="article:published_time" /><meta name="sailth.excerpt" ntent="“Let me show you somethg, man,” says Cha Umunna, the 39-year-old Labour polician, stridg up Brixton Hill south London. He stops outsi a big, wdowls slab of a buildg, wh an old-style cema awng, now lled the Electric Brixton. “Did you ever ed to go to the Fridge?” My" /><meta name="" ntent="culture,Culture" /><meta name="" ntent="2019-02-20 12:49:00" /><meta name="sailth.socialtle" ntent="Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?" /><meta name="ntenttype" ntent="longform-article" /><meta id="m1" name="m1" emProp="cssSelector " ntent=".ntent-hed" /><meta id="m2" name="m2" emProp="cssSelector" ntent=".ntent-k p" /><lk href="/" emSpe emType=" emRef="m1 m2" /><lk rel="prefetch" href="" as="image" /><lk rel="preload" as="image" image-src-set=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" image-siz="100vw" /><meta name="next-head-unt" ntent="46" /><meta name="next-font-prennect" /><script id="vice-tect" data-nscript="beforeInteractive">(()=>{nst o="ontouchstart" wdow||!!navigator.maxTouchPots||("__touch"),t=wdow.matchMedia("only screen and (max-width: 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class="css-huh8md e9l0kn01"><a emProp="em" href="//culture/a22696255/cha-umunna-send-referendum-brex/" data-vars-ga-ux-element="Breadcmbs" data-vars-ga-ll-to-actn="Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?" data-vars-ga-outbound-lk=" class="e9l0kn00 css-10asp0m e1c1bym14"><span emProp="name">Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?</span></a><meta emProp="posn" ntent="2" /></li></ol></nav><style data-emotn="css g4r5va">{font-fay:Glanz,Glanz-fallback,Tim,Serif;font-weight:normal;grid-lumn:1/-1;marg-bottom:0.9375rem;marg-top:0.9375rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:2rem;le-height:1.25;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{font-size:2.625rem;le-height:1.1;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{font-size:3.125rem;le-height:1.1;}}@media(m-width: 73.75rem){{font-size:3.37499rem;le-height:1.1;}}</style><h1 class="css-g4r5va exadjwu10"><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p0"></span>Is There Any Way Back For Cha Umunna?<span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></h1><style data-emotn="css 2qf7xf">{lor:#515150;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;marg-bottom:0.625rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:1.0625rem;le-height:1.2;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{font-size:1.3125rem;le-height:1.2;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{font-size:1.3125rem;le-height:1.3;}} a{-webk-text-ratn:unrle;text-ratn:unrle;text-ratn-thickns:0.0625rem;text-ratn-lor:#FF3A30;text-unrle-offset:0.25rem;lor:#000000;-webk-transn:all 0.3s ease--out;transn:all 0.3s ease--out;} a:hover{lor:#595959;text-ratn-lor:borr-lk-body-hover;}</style><div class="css-2qf7xf exadjwu8"><p>Handsome, amb, urbane: four years ago, Cha Umunna was all set to be the next lear of the Labour Party — Bra’s Obama, our Macron, our T. But he pulled out of the learship ntt 2015 and he's been the wilrns ever sce, a lonely liberal centrist left behd by a polarised Parliament. Is there a way back for the former future of Brish polics? And will take the natn llapsg unr Brex for his star to rise aga?</p></div><style data-emotn="css 18k4ks7">{lor:#161616;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacg:0.02rem;marg-bottom:0.625rem;paddg-right:0.3125rem;text-transform:upperse;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.4;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.3;}} span{font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacg:0rem;text-transform:palize;}@media(max-width: 48rem){ span{le-height:2rem;font-size:0.875rem;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){ span{le-height:2rem;font-size:0.875rem;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){ span{le-height:2rem;font-size:0.875rem;}}</style><div class="css-18k4ks7 exadjwu7"><style data-emotn="css 1eqkg5m">{lor:#161616;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-style:normal;letter-spacg:0.02rem;paddg-right:0.3125rem;text-transform:upperse;-webk-text-stroke:0.005rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.4;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.3;}}</style><addrs class="css-1eqkg5m ehvvd9m2"><style data-emotn="css 19e0noj">{lor:#161616;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacg:0.02rem;paddg-right:0.3125rem;text-transform:upperse;-webk-text-stroke:0.005rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.4;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{font-size:0.70003rem;le-height:1.3;}}</style><span class="css-19e0noj ehvvd9m1">By Tim Lewis and Portras by Jooney Woodward</span><style data-emotn="css 1bcsdhu">{display:le-block;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;marg-left:0.625rem;text-transform:upperse;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.75rem;le-height:1.3;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.75rem;le-height:1.3;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{font-size:0.75rem;le-height:1.3;}}</style><time class="css-1bcsdhu exadjwu6">Updated: 20 Febary 2019</time></addrs></div></div></div></hear><style data-emotn="css 149neno">{marg-left:to;marg-right:to;marg-bottom:0.9375rem;max-width:m(lc(20.625rem * 2 - 1rem), lc(100vw - 1rem * 2));} .e152u5os0{marg-left:lc((100vw - m(lc(20.625rem * 2 - 1rem), lc(100vw - 1rem * 2)))/-2);width:100vw;}@media(m-width: 48rem) and (max-width: 61.25rem){ .e152u5os0{marg-left:lc(lc((100vw - m(lc(20.625rem * 2 - 1rem), lc(100vw - 1rem * 2)))/-2) - 3.5rem);}}@media(m-width: 90rem){ .e152u5os0{paddg-left:0.1rem;paddg-right:0.1rem;marg-left:lc(lc((100vw - m(lc(20.625rem * 2 - 1rem), lc(100vw - 1rem * 2)))/-2));}}</style><div class="longform-ntaer ntent-ntaer article-ntaer css-149neno ewisyje2"><style data-emotn="css woto36">{font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;font-size:1.1875rem;le-height:1.6;paddg-left:0rem;paddg-right:0rem;posn:relative;}@media(m-width: 48rem){{paddg-left:3.5rem;paddg-right:3.5rem;}}@media(m-width: 48rem) and (max-width: 61.25rem){{max-width:45.25rem;marg-left:to;marg-right:to;}}@media(m-width: 61.25rem){{paddg-left:0rem;paddg-right:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 73.75rem) and (max-width: 100rem){{paddg-left:0rem;paddg-right:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 90rem){{paddg-left:0rem;paddg-right:0rem;}} em{font-style:alic;font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;} strong{font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;font-weight:bold;}{clear:both;ntent:" ";display:block;font-size:0.7rem;le-height:1.5rem;height:0rem;visibily:hidn;}</style><div class="article-body-ntent article-body longform-body css-woto36 ewisyje7"><style data-emotn="css aeyldl">{font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;font-size:1.1875rem;le-height:1.6;} strong{font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;font-weight:bold;} em{font-style:alic;font-fay:Charter,Geia,Tim,Serif;}</style><p data-no-id="0" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0"><strong>“Let me show you somethg, man,”</strong> says Cha Umunna, the 39-year-old Labour polician, stridg up Brixton Hill south London. He stops outsi a big, wdowls slab of a buildg, wh an old-style cema awng, now lled the Electric Brixton. “Did you ever ed to go to the Fridge?” </p><p data-no-id="1" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">My policy such circumstanc is to lie, claim more knowledge and experience than I have, but somethg about an MP quizzg me on my clubbg history tch me off-guard. I reply no, I did not ever go to the Fridge. Umunna’s handsome face seems to cmple jt a ltle, but he lnch to a potted history of the venue, a landmark for New Romantic mic, the putative se of the first “chill out” room and long-time home to semal gay night, Love Mcle.</p><p data-no-id="2" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“This you’ve got to see,” Umunna ntu, boundg on a few steps. Halfway up the wall, between the alarm and a secury light, is a black plaque the size of a dner plate: “Soul II Soul first gigged live here 1991,” reads. He star to the middle distance. Soul II Soul was Umunna’s first live ncert, aged 13, up the road at Brixton Amy and he nsirs theirs the “qutsential” Brish soul sound, so origal and fect that took on Ameri’s bt and won a pair of Grammys. Unveilg the plaque 2012, wh the band’s lear Jazzie B attendance, is one of his giddit moments as a polician. Then, as he do today, he talked wh blazg ey about how Soul II Soul were nomated for five Brs 1990 and 1991 and me away wh none. Jazzie B looked on, sangue. The Mobo awards, Umunna not, were partly set up to rrect this jtice.</p><div supprsHydratnWarng data-no-id="3" data-embed="edorial-lk" class="embed css-0 e9hzx6g0"><style data-emotn="css 1643r8a">{borr:none;marg-top:1.875rem;marg-bottom:1.875rem;paddg:0rem;}</style><asi class="css-1643r8a e6pr2lz5"><style data-emotn="css l3w2xc">{display:le-block;font-weight:normal;marg:0rem;borr-top:0.25rem solid #15263D;paddg-right:1.1rem;paddg-top:0.4375rem;text-transform:lowerse;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.875rem;le-height:1.3;}</style><h6 class="css-l3w2xc e6pr2lz3"><style data-emotn="css 156fvc1">{borr-bottom:0.4375rem solid #FF3A30;borr-right:0.4375rem solid transparent;ntent:'';display:le-block;height:0;marg-right:0.5rem;width:0;}</style><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-156fvc1 eagam8p0"></span><style data-emotn="css 8lle59">{max-width:lc(100% - 120px - .625rem);}</style><span class="css-8lle59 e6pr2lz1">Related Story</span><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></h6><style data-emotn="css c4s2gi">{paddg:0rem;marg:0rem;list-style:none;}</style><ul class="css-c4s2gi e6pr2lz4"><style data-emotn="css 79zw4t">{font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;le-height:2rem;paddg-top:0.625rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:0.9375rem;le-height:1.3;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{le-height:1.4;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{le-height:1.4;}} a{-webk-text-ratn:none;text-ratn:none;lor:her;-webk-transn:all 0.3s ease--out;transn:all 0.3s ease--out;} a:hover{lor:#595959;}</style><li class="css-79zw4t e6pr2lz2"><style data-emotn="css 1bn7a5e">{-webk-text-ratn:none;text-ratn:none;display:-webk-box;display:-webk-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webk-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webk-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;-webk-flex-directn:row;-ms-flex-directn:row;flex-directn:row;-webk-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webk-jtify-ntent:flex-start;jtify-ntent:flex-start;-webk-align-ems:center;-webk-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-ems:center;}</style><a href="//culture/a17158/gee-osborne-revenge/" data-vars-ga-ll-to-actn="Gee Osborne's Revenge" data-vars-ga-ux-element="Edorial Lks" data-vars-ga-outbound-lk=" class="css-1bn7a5e e1c1bym14"><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p0"></span><style data-emotn="css 1l0u1">{marg-right:0.625rem;height:to;}</style><img src="" alt="this image is not available" tle="Gee Osborne's Revenge" width="120" height="100%" dg="async" loadg="lazy" image-align="left" class="css-1l0u1 e6pr2lz0" /><span class="css-8lle59 e6pr2lz1">Gee Osborne's Revenge</span><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></a></li></ul></asi></div><p data-no-id="4" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Whenever a polician profs a fondns for a particular mic act, often feels spect, like a team of advisors and an algorhm have been engaged. But on this Friday morng early June, one is left no doubt: Cha Umunna really lik Soul II Soul.</p><p data-no-id="5" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna’s tour of Brixton keeps on mov’. He pots out the route Nelson Manla took July 1996, on his first state vis to Bra as South Ai’s Print. The crowd was ten-ep and Umunna remembers he heard word that morng and broke off revisg for his A-levels to attend. Then he gtur down the road at the railway bridge. That’s where he was April 1981, jt as the first Brixton rt kicked off. He was two-and-a-half at the time, his sister one, and his mother had to gather them and the shoppg her arms and n. </p><p data-no-id="6" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“I don’t have any memory of , but my mum, my god, the stori she tells,” says Umunna. “There was a feverish atmosphere, there’d been lots of problems wh the police up to that pot, muny relatns were a terrible place. And this one guy said, ‘Lady, you want to take your kids wh you, and get out of here fast.’”</p><div supprsHydratnWarng data-no-id="7" data-embed="pullquote" class="embed css-0 e9hzx6g0"><style data-emotn="css 1eiql25">{text-align:center;marg:0rem;paddg-top:0.9375rem;paddg-bottom:0.9375rem;}</style><blockquote class="css-1eiql25 e1pe3zr91"><style data-emotn="css ow0dpz">{borr:0.3125rem solid #FF3A30;borr-radi:100%;ntent:'';display:block;height:2.1875rem;left:50%;marg:-0.99rem to 0 -1.33rem;posn:absolute;width:2.1875rem;}</style><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-ow0dpz eagam8p0"></span><style data-emotn="css la9czl">{font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;le-height:1.2;marg:0rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:1.75rem;le-height:1.2;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{font-size:2.375rem;le-height:1.2;}} b, strong{font-fay:her;font-weight:bold;} em, i{font-fay:her;font-style:alic;}{ntent:'"';display:block;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:3.4375rem;le-height:0.72;font-style:alic;paddg:0.3125rem 0.875rem 0 0;}</style><blockquote class="css-la9czl e1pe3zr90">"Both parti are lookg for old solutns to tomorrow's problems"</blockquote><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></blockquote></div><p data-no-id="8" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Today’s erary — which clus a school vis and some lol mpaigng for a People’s Vote (most fely not a send referendum, oh no) on whatever Brex al is agreed by the Conservative Government — has been suggted by Umunna’s office, and ’s not hard to see why. He grew up round here and now, as the Labour MP for Streatham, he reprents the people he has lived alongsi his whole life. Later, when we’re his r, a VW Golf wh a child seat and sun sha the back for his one-year-old dghter, he reflects, “I thk that do make a big difference terms of how you feel about a place. I don’t have to put the GPS on to know where I’m gog my nstuency.”</p><p data-no-id="9" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">In fact, the excursn is not that different om the tour Umunna gave Will Smh March 2013. Umunna met Smh at a party, when the actor was chaperong his son Jan, a rapper, who was appearg wh Jt Bieber on tour. Umunna suggted that, if Smh grew tired of five-star hotels, he might like to see “London’s Harlem”. To his surprise, Smh agreed and a uple of days later they were walkg the streets wh the late Tsa Jowell, another lol MP. They ma a surprise drop- at a lol girls’ high school and there’s fantastic, thentilly blurry footage as Smh starts sgg <em>The Frh Prce of Bel Air</em> theme and the room scends to bedlam. Umunna, drsed a su wh a mve tie, emerged wh huge cred: there’s a uple of sends when Smh starts rappg where you image Umunna’s thkg, “Is this gog to sandbag my reer forever?” But then his shoulrs beg rollg and he pulls off the no-mean-feat of dancg a su and not lookg like your dad at a weddg.</p><p data-no-id="10" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“I tell you, I’ve never seen anythg like ,” Umunna rells of his day as a tour gui for Smh. “Grown men their sixti behavg like school children. Extraordary.”</p><p data-no-id="11" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">In some ways, uldn’t — and wouldn’t — get any better than this for Umunna. He was 34, shadow bs secretary, one of the biggt jobs the Labour Party, and tsted litenant to the lear Ed Miliband. He was that most rare of policians: somehow he uld be all thgs to all people, whatever your party leangs. His father was a Nigerian immigrant; his Anglo-Irish mother me om a storied le of QCs, not least her father who had been a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He went to a fee-payg sendary school; he also worked on a market stall at weekends and the box office at Crystal Palace FC. At universy, he weighed up beg eher an employment lawyer or a DJ. Umunna had impecble leftist crentials, but his pronouncements on bs and wealth creatn would not flter most Tory voters. In the prs, he was often pared to Barack Obama; one profile even noted that their nam had intil syllable unts.</p><p data-no-id="12" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">And Umunna jt <em>looked</em> and <em>felt</em> right: the kd of morn, transformative polician you would sketch out if given a blank sheet of paper. He was a slick, articulate and charismatic social mocrat, fierce bat and fluent new media. He uld e across as a b too polished, his tractors always noted, almost like he actually had been sketched om a blank sheet of paper. But still, seemed his sty to steer his party, to n this untry. </p><style data-emotn="css 1736von">{--data-embed-display:flex;-webk-align-ems:center;-webk-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-ems:center;clear:both;display:-webk-box;display:-webk-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;marg-bottom:0.9375rem;marg-left:to;marg-right:to;width:100%;}@media(m-width: 20rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 30rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 73.75rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 75rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 90rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}} a span{right:1rem;} img{width:to;height:85vh;} a{display:-webk-le-box;display:-webk-le-flex;display:-ms-le-flexbox;display:le-flex;posn:var(--posn, relative);} img:not(.ewcw41w1){display:block;width:100%;height:to;-webk-align-self:flex-start;-ms-flex-em-align:flex-start;align-self:flex-start;}</style><div size="medium" data-embed="body-image" data-no-id="13" class="align-center size-medium embed css-1736von e1xqj1sx4"><style data-emotn="css uwraif">{width:100%;display:-webk-le-box;display:-webk-le-flex;display:-ms-le-flexbox;display:le-flex;-webk-flex-directn:lumn;-ms-flex-directn:lumn;flex-directn:lumn;marg-left:to;marg-right:to;-webk-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webk-jtify-ntent:center;jtify-ntent:center;}</style><div class="css-uwraif e1xqj1sx3"><div class="css-p7qblm ewcw41w0"><img alt="Cha Umunna" tle="Cha Umunna" loadg="lazy" width="2500" height="3093" dg="async" data-nimg="1" style="lor: transparent; width: 100%; height: to;" siz="100vw" srcSet=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" src="" class="css-0 exi4f7p0" /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="// Uk&" class="ptert css-1i6sckr e1c1bym14"><img data-dynamic-svg src="/_assets/sign-tokens/e/static/ins/social/" loadg="lazy" alt="ptert in" height="to" width="to" class="css-1l3i1cl ewcw41w1" /></a></div><style data-emotn="css swqnqv">@media(m-width: 20rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 30rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 73.75rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 75rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}@media(m-width: 90rem){{paddg-left:0rem;}}</style><div class="css-swqnqv e1xqj1sx2"><figptn class="css-1am3yn9 enfs9c50"><span class="css-1mcfn5x e6iqd2">Jooney Woodward</span></figptn></div></div></div><p data-no-id="14" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Five years on, though, the h prce has not bee kg. As falls om grace go, ’s been a soberg one. He is currently a backbencher the Hoe of Commons wh no official rem. Not only is his party not power, but he seems to have few fluential iends and no fenrs any more. He did flirt wh a learship bid 2015, but that immolated wh 72 hours, amid whispers that he mt have some kd of viant past. Almost overnight, we cid that we wanted unflashy, nvictn policians (Jeremy Corbyn), not smooth, metropolan on (Tony Blair, David Cameron).</p><p data-no-id="15" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna is maly heard om the days as an outspoken anti-Brex talkg head, a “Remoaner” Farage. From lookg like a polician who uld bridge the chasm between left and right, he’s chosen a bleak hill to die on: the most wearisome, hopels and divisive topic of our tim. So what went wrong for Cha Umunna? And do he have a strategy or even the sire to put right?</p><p data-no-id="16" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">For the rerd, Umunna would no doubt dispute that analysis and, to be fair, he do not strike you as a hollow, unfulfilled person. “I hontly do feel like the luckit man alive,” he sists, over lunch at Batch and Co, a ffee shop Streatham. “I have a betiful dghter, an amazg wife and not everyone has that. My close mat always lgh at me bee I say I’m blsed, but I don’t know what I did to serve . And this is an extraordary job, you have a lot of the moments when you pch yourself. You never wake up on a Monday morng thkg, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to go to work today.’ It don’t really work like that.”</p><div supprsHydratnWarng data-no-id="17" data-embed="pullquote" class="embed css-0 e9hzx6g0"><blockquote class="css-1eiql25 e1pe3zr91"><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-ow0dpz eagam8p0"></span><blockquote class="css-la9czl e1pe3zr90">"Labour will be seen as -midwiv to Brex"</blockquote><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></blockquote></div><p data-no-id="18" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">And, south London at least, Umunna remas ltle short of a cult figure. When he first ntted the Streatham seat 2010, looked danger of beg stolen; Labour squeaked through wh a majory of 3,000. After five years, Umunna had almost qutupled that figure to nearly 14,000. Last time out, June 2017, he stretched the gap to 26,285, wng a Put-que share of the vot st. Umunna flects some of the cred to Jeremy Corbyn and to Brex: Lambeth, the borough which both Brixton and Streatham fall, voted 78.6 per cent to stay the European Unn, the hight figure the ballot of anywhere except for Gibraltar.</p><p data-no-id="19" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Still, there don’t seem to be many people round here who don’t know who he is and broadly what he stands for. And he’s a natural, stctive munitor: whether ’s talkg to teenagers at the school (“It’s a ridiculo, nonsense spectacle,” he says of Prime Mister’s Qutns, “but ’s the biggt event polics. It’s box office”) or charmg the old ars outsi Brixton tube statn (“Brex is not gog to solve the of Brex”). “It’s a people job, I love ,” Umunna explas. “On the street stuff, I’d much rather do this all day than s on the green bench some long-wd bate. The funny thg is I get surprised by how many people don’t this job.”</p><p data-no-id="20" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">If Umunna n sometim seem like a shaphifter, then he thks his unual background and upbrgg are rponsible. His mother, Patricia, was well to do, but half-Irish, so she never qualified as posh. She worked as a probatn officer. His father Bent Umunna, meanwhile, arrived the Liverpool docks om Nigeria 1964, rryg his suse on his head, basilly pennils. He washed plat the kchens of a South Ain diamond-mg pany and learned to ok English food; he cleaned limo and then sat the back and studied for his bs and acuntancy exams. Eventually, he ran a succsful import-export operatn between Nigeria and the UK. Patricia and Bent met at a party London the Seventi; she was 6ft 1, he was a actn over 5ft. But they clicked and Cha (which rhym wh “oker”) was born on 17 October, 1978.</p><div size="medium" data-embed="body-image" data-no-id="21" class="align-center size-medium embed css-1736von e1xqj1sx4"><div class="css-uwraif e1xqj1sx3"><div class="css-p7qblm ewcw41w0"><img alt="Child, Footwear, Cool, Toddler, Grass, Tree, Shoe, Plant, Photography, Happy, " tle="Child, Footwear, Cool, Toddler, Grass, Tree, Shoe, Plant, Photography, Happy, " loadg="lazy" width="1181" height="1180" dg="async" data-nimg="1" style="lor: transparent; width: 100%; height: to;" siz="100vw" srcSet=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" src="" class="css-0 exi4f7p0" /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="// Uk&" class="ptert css-1i6sckr e1c1bym14"><img data-dynamic-svg src="/_assets/sign-tokens/e/static/ins/social/" loadg="lazy" alt="ptert in" height="to" width="to" class="css-1l3i1cl ewcw41w1" /></a></div><div class="css-swqnqv e1xqj1sx2"><style data-emotn="css 8h7i7x">{width:0;m-width:100%;paddg-top:0.625rem;letter-spacg:0.02rem;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.875rem;le-height:1.3;} em, i{font-fay:her;font-style:alic;}</style><div class="css-8h7i7x e1xqj1sx1">Cha Umunna, photographed 1980 the garn of his fay home Streatham, south London. Sce 2010, he has been the area’s member of parliament</div><figptn class="css-1am3yn9 enfs9c50"><span class="css-1mcfn5x e6iqd2">-</span></figptn></div></div></div><p data-no-id="22" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Bent’s bs did well, and when they weren’t happy wh Umunna’s state primary school — “The system Lambeth then had a terrible rerd of discrimatg agast black and mory ethnic kids, wrg them off, stereotypg them, and the same thg happened to me” — they moved him to the fee-payg St Dunstan’s College Catford, south London. He played the cello and was a chorister at Southwark Cathedral. But then, 1992, when Umunna was 13, Bent died. A few weeks earlier, he had stood for the ernorship of Anambra State Nigeria wh a promise to wipe out rptn. He lost and then not long afterwards a tck rryg logs crashed to the r which he was travellg. Nothg was ever proved but there were strong spicns of foul play: the cint happened at night and Bent didn’t have his ual driver. “There’s been que a lot of speculatn terms of the circumstanc of my father’s ath, whether he’d been assassated,” says Umunna. “The tth is we’ll never know.”</p><p data-no-id="23" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Has Umunna tried to fd out what happened? “Well, ’s not gog to brg him back, is ?” he repli. “The way thgs were Nigeria then… If somebody died unr dub circumstanc here, there would be a full-on police vtigatn, forensics, and that is not how was Nigeria at that time. So we really jt ncentrated on tryg to rebuild our liv.”</p><p data-no-id="24" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Rebuildg meant Patricia havg to qualify aga as a solicor aged 46; at the weekend, the fay had a market stall at Merton Abbey Mills, a sled-back versn of the bs Bent had operated. “My mum went back to work, we all went to work,” Umunna says, wh a mirthls lgh. “It was all hands to the pump really after he passed away. It wasn’t an easy time or certaly an affluent time.”</p><p data-no-id="25" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">When you ask Umunna — as I did, as everyone do — whether he believ ’s his sty to be a party lear or even prime mister, he always repli a siar way. It never felt remotely possible, growg up, that he uld do anythg like that; even beg a member of parliament seemed an outrageo fantasy. It’s a ft way of swervg the qutn, but mak a valid pot. Back then, there were only four MPs out of 650 the Hoe of Commons om black or Asian backgrounds, people who, Umunna’s words, “looked like me”: Labour MPs Pl Boateng, Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott and Keh Vaz were all elected for the first time 1987. South London was not the rapidly gentrifyg spot of today; was the Brixton rts and Del Boy and Rodney wh their il dream of beg lnair. “I didn’t have time to do a lot of polickg,” he sighs.</p><div supprsHydratnWarng data-no-id="26" data-embed="pullquote" class="embed css-0 e9hzx6g0"><blockquote class="css-1eiql25 e1pe3zr91"><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-ow0dpz eagam8p0"></span><blockquote class="css-la9czl e1pe3zr90">"Where MPs are on the issue of Brex will never be fotten"</blockquote><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></blockquote></div><p data-no-id="27" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Bent liv on his son ways both superficial and more profound. Umunna has been hammered for likg nice watch, expensive tailorg — the <em>Mail on Sunday</em> othed that his sus st £1,200 — but for him, is “que an Ain predilectn”. He says, “My dad always ma a big thg about havg well-cut sus. It’s partly a cultural thg, but for him, lookg sharp and prentg yourself well was very, very important. And ’s partly jt arrivg the mid-Sixti, small ltle black man, all the sh you have to put up wh, but the first statement you’re makg to somebody is how you appear and how you look. Before you’ve even opened your mouth. That was fely passed onto me. It was a big thg, the su.”</p><p data-no-id="28" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">But Bent’s life has also rmed his approach to polics. When Umunna told his mother that he wanted to leave his job as an employment lawyer at the Cy firm Herbert Smh Freehills and bee an MP, she was “not at all enthiastic” about the prospect. But now, he thks that what happened to his father teach him to not take his job too serly. “Polics Ai n be que life and ath, ’s pretty cut-throat,” he says. “That’s probably pletely the wrong words to e, but people thk ’s challengg here, and over there ’s another thg altogether. It n be que dangero, actually. So I suppose some of the nonsense here, maybe puts a b perspective.” </p><p data-no-id="29" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">a week after we wanred around Brixton, I meet Umunna at his offic Wtmster. He wears a slim, royal blue su ma by Alexandra Wood, one of the only female tailors on Savile Row. “I’ve known Ally sce we were teenagers and we ed to go clubbg together,” says Umunna. His hair is clippered, croquet-lawn short, as always is the days. He had a flat top as a teenager, but he cut all off when he went to law school and now he buzz every week. He married Alice Sullivan, also an employment lawyer, 2016 and a phchair idl next to his sk. Empty I should note; his dghter is downstairs the Hoe of Commons crèche. “My wife’s dog a big se at the moment,” he says. “And so” — raised eyebrows — “the juggle.” </p><p data-no-id="30" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">The fact that such a suatn is possible (“I thought at one pot my dghter would be walkg around while we were dog this”) tells Umunna that he ma the right cisn to whdraw om the learship ntt May 2015. It was an odd perd, he reflects now, of polil and personal upheaval. Labour, unr Ed Miliband, had jt been trounced by an unforeen marg the general electn. Umunna had not long been datg Sullivan. When the uple appeared, holdg hands, to rerd the BBC’s <em>The Andrew Marr Show</em>, the prs did what the prs do. Umunna’s sister was ntacted Denmark, where she now liv. Photographers turned up at Sullivan’s parents’ hoe. “I haven’t even met him,” her dad told one reporter. “This is very early on.”</p><div size="medium" data-embed="body-image" data-no-id="31" class="align-center size-medium embed css-1736von e1xqj1sx4"><div class="css-uwraif e1xqj1sx3"><div class="css-p7qblm ewcw41w0"><img alt="Photograph, Weddg drs, Ceremony, Bri, Weddg, Event, Bridal clothg, Drs, Formal wear, Marriage, " tle="Photograph, Weddg drs, Ceremony, Bri, Weddg, Event, Bridal clothg, Drs, Formal wear, Marriage, " loadg="lazy" width="1200" height="1600" dg="async" data-nimg="1" style="lor: transparent; width: 100%; height: to;" siz="100vw" srcSet=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" src="" class="css-0 exi4f7p0" /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="// Uk&" class="ptert css-1i6sckr e1c1bym14"><img data-dynamic-svg src="/_assets/sign-tokens/e/static/ins/social/" loadg="lazy" alt="ptert in" height="to" width="to" class="css-1l3i1cl ewcw41w1" /></a></div><div class="css-swqnqv e1xqj1sx2"><figptn class="css-1am3yn9 enfs9c50"><span class="css-1mcfn5x e6iqd2">-</span></figptn></div></div></div><p data-no-id="32" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna announced he was standg, was stalled as favoure by the booki, then whdrew. This all took a ltle over three days. The official le was: “I have been subject to the add level of prsure that wh beg a learship ndidate. I have not found to be a fortable experience.” Of urse, there were plenty of unofficial l, too: that he was gay; that he had a dggy past; that he had relativ back Nigeria who were members of Boko Haram.</p><p data-no-id="33" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“Beg polics, people were like, ‘Oh was your dg hab?’” says Umunna, sg. “Or whatever. I never had a dg hab but was all like, ‘There mt be somethg. There mt be some skeleton the closet!’ And I was like, ‘There really isn’t.’ It’s as simple as love. And wantg to have a better-balanced life. I was 36 at the time. It’s a time when I feel that you’ve got the rt of your life to do stuff. But now I look back and like I said, I’m a very lucky man ed.”</p><p data-no-id="34" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">No regrets at all? “No!” he almost squeals. “Not at all. Is that the wrong thg to say?”</p><p data-no-id="35" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">The Corbyn era has taken a thick red pen to Umunna’s immaculate CV. Shortly after he won, the new Labour lear phoned him — Umunna happened to be a pub, so he moved outsi and took the ll ont of a chicken shop — and by the end of the nversatn, he was no longer shadow bs secretary. Umunna sists he neher rigned nor was fired; the pair jt agreed very nvivially fact, bee of their differg stanc on EU membership, to unuple.</p><p data-no-id="36" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Still when, at last year’s Labour nference, Umunna hted that he would, if Corbyn asked, rejo the party’s ont bench, no vatn was forthg. The party has moved sharply to the left sce 2015 and Umunna not that he, and others on the centre-left, are nigrated now as “red Tori”. He’s often tnted that he should leave Labour and jo the Liberal Democrats or the Conservativ. This om people technilly on his si of the polil divi. His relatnship wh the shadow chancellor John McDonnell is pecially febrile. How about Corbyn? “Personally, my relatnship wh him has always been very good,” says Umunna. “But I want to get away om one’s relatnship wh the Labour Party beg fed by what you thk about him. And too often is about him.”</p><p data-no-id="37" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Are we past peak Corbyn? “Don’t know really,” he repli. “I thk there’s far too much discsn about the personaly and the cult. I thought the same unr Blair, the fan worship of one dividual never sat terribly fortably wh me. If Tony Blair hadn’t bee lear of the Labour Party I wouldn’t have joed , but I uldn’t al wh the fandom, which is why phed me a way to the soft-left of the party. And equally, at last year’s party nference somebody prented Jeremy wh a picture of himself wh a halo on his head on the platform! I was jt like, ‘We’re a polil party! Not a fan club.’ </p><p data-no-id="38" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“So ’s the wrong qutn for me,” Umunna go on. “I don’t do the whole cult thg and I don’t re who the lear is and I never ever particularly subscribed to that way of dog polics.”</p><p data-no-id="39" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Like everythg that Umunna says, this sounds smooth and pellg, but is not hard to fd people who believe that his bt — and perhaps only — chance of beg Labour lear is the past. Each year sce 2007, the right-leang blogger and LBC rad host Ia Dale has nvened a panel to select the 100 most fluential people on the left. Umunna has been a fixture sce 2010, wh a top-10 rankg om 2012 to 2014, but recent years, his posn has been on the sli. Last year, he was 20th spot and when the new le-up is revealed September, Dale expects him to drop further down the list.</p><p data-no-id="40" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“I don’t see that he has had any material fluence wh the Labour parliamentary party, apart om on Europe,” explas Dale. “And I thk he’s been eclipsed on that subject by one or two people as well. Not surprisgly he wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn’s top team, and he has been a ltle b of a thorn Corbyn’s si ever sce, but not really a rebel that’s ed Corbyn massive problems. So my spicn would be that he would go down, probably que a b, bee he’s never mentned the next lear nversatns any more, partly bee of the makp of the Labour party membership now. So ’s que difficult where he go om here, unls there’s some sort of pletely unexpected velopment.”</p><p data-no-id="41" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">And yet. It don’t feel time to give up on Umunna jt yet. A phrase that recurs our terviews is that “polics is temporary”. There’s certaly plenty of evince to support that statement om the last few years. The first time Emmanuel Macron ns for any office, he be the Print of France. Likewise Tmp. Corbyn.</p><p data-no-id="42" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“Anythg’s possible based on world polics over the last two years!” says Jonathan Reynolds, a Labour MP who has known Umunna sce they were at Manchter Universy together and Umunna’s email addrs was “speedgarageeak”. “There’s no sense of Cha retreatg om ontle polics, which is great, he’s still got a big hunger for and you see that the Brex stuff. And I thk he’s not obssg about that learship stuff, maybe like he was before that ntt, which is a good thg, bee means he’s much more fortable beg himself and dog what he thks is right. So who knows what that will lead to? There’s no doubt he’s one of the most talented people on our bench.”</p><p data-no-id="43" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Ia Dale, too, not that there are few Labour policians that the Conservativ fear as much. He rells dog a rad phone- jt before the 2015 general electn when one ller announced that if Umunna was charge, he’d vote Labour. It hadn’t been what they were talkg about, but for the next hour, ller after ller said exactly the same thg. “It was pletely spontaneo; I’ve never seen anythg like ,” says Dale. “If Cha walks to a room, people turn round and he be the centre of attentn. Oh, if he’d taken over om Ed Miliband he would have been credibly dangero to the Tori. Bee he’s got that appeal across polics, which all succsful policians have: Margaret Thatcher had , Tony Blair had and I thk he’s got .”</p><style data-emotn="css f1dz33">{--data-embed-display:flex;-webk-align-ems:center;-webk-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-ems:center;clear:both;display:-webk-box;display:-webk-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;marg-bottom:0.9375rem;marg-left:to;marg-right:to;width:100%;}@media(m-width: 20rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 30rem){{width:100%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 73.75rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 75rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}}@media(m-width: 90rem){{width:50%;marg:0 to 0.9375rem;}} a span{right:1rem;} img{width:to;height:85vh;} a{display:-webk-le-box;display:-webk-le-flex;display:-ms-le-flexbox;display:le-flex;posn:var(--posn, relative);} img:not(.ewcw41w1){display:block;width:100%;height:to;-webk-align-self:flex-start;-ms-flex-em-align:flex-start;align-self:flex-start;}</style><div size="small" data-embed="body-image" data-no-id="44" class="align-center size-small embed css-f1dz33 e1xqj1sx4"><div class="css-uwraif e1xqj1sx3"><div class="css-p7qblm ewcw41w0"><img alt="Su, Formal wear, Whe-llar worker, Event, Tuxedo, Official, Tie, Bsperson, Se, " tle="Su, Formal wear, Whe-llar worker, Event, Tuxedo, Official, Tie, Bsperson, Se, " loadg="lazy" width="827" height="1034" dg="async" data-nimg="1" style="lor: transparent; width: 100%; height: to;" siz="100vw" srcSet=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" src="" class="css-0 exi4f7p0" /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="// Uk&" class="ptert css-1i6sckr e1c1bym14"><img data-dynamic-svg src="/_assets/sign-tokens/e/static/ins/social/" loadg="lazy" alt="ptert in" height="to" width="to" class="css-1l3i1cl ewcw41w1" /></a></div><div class="css-swqnqv e1xqj1sx2"><div class="css-8h7i7x e1xqj1sx1">Umunna alongsi Canadian Prime Mister Jt T at a policy work receptn, London, 2015</div><figptn class="css-1am3yn9 enfs9c50"><span class="css-1mcfn5x e6iqd2">-</span></figptn></div></div></div><p data-no-id="45" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">For now, Umunna will keep talkg to anyone who will listen about Brex, which he lls “the biggt issue facg this untry sce World War II”. But when I suggt that he’s gamblg on Brex provg to be a disaster, he seems afonted. “I believe , so I don’t really see as a gamble,” he shoots back. “I don’t see that way at all. Look, I’m very happy to be proved wrong, that would be great.”</p><p data-no-id="46" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Gazg out of his wdow, over Parliament Square, he has a doomy prognosis for both parti. “This place thks that if Brex happens, thgs are gog to go back to normal,” he says. “So the Labour Party thks that ultimately will be seen as the flt of the Conservativ, which I thk is wrong. I thk, unls we adopt a more distctive anti-Brex msage, we will be seen as -midwiv of the project, particularly given we did not do enough 2016 to w that referendum. So the ia that we will be absolved of any rponsibily for the fallout is jt for the birds.”</p><p data-no-id="47" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">When Umunna talks, ’s hard not to feel that he is mentally preparg a future manifto. He believ that the stance each dividual MP tak on Brex will e to be as signifint as where you stood on the Iraq War: “If we h enomic choppy waters the future, where you are on this issue will never be fotten,” he predicts. “It will fe polics after.” That’s why he spent the early summer attemptg — though failg — to nvce lleagu to vote to stay the European Enomic Area. And there are other passn projects: he wants a signated NHS tax; he wants to turn the Ho of Parliament to a mm and replace wh a morn electoral system wh some form of proportnal reprentatn; he wants to rce the votg age to 16.</p><p data-no-id="48" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">“My overwhelmg sense really is that the way we do polics is terribly old-fashned,” he go on. “Both the two ma parti are lookg very stale and almost hubristic about the electn rult last year and not terribly morn. Both the ma parti are reachg for old solutns to tomorrow’s problems. Havg had time to thk, get out, go and see thgs, that is my feelg.”</p><p data-no-id="49" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">It is not often you hear a polician cricise both the opposn and his own party — sounds like a gey pch for a new centrist party. The ia that there’s a vast, mostly overlooked middle ground between the Corbynised Labour Party and a Conservative Party egged on by Jab Re-Mogg up every so often: April, was revealed that a small group of entreprenrs and philanthropists had secretly raised £50m fundg for a new party. The nam most often mentned as potential lears are Blair, David Miliband and Umunna.</p><p data-no-id="50" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna knows that trap, and swerv . “A lot of people talk to me about , people e up to me on the tube and the b London and on the tra out of London,” he says. “It’s a growg topic of nversatn and ’s the cry of the grass roots and the public for our polics to be different. And the two ma parti have an opportuny to addrs that.”</p><p data-no-id="51" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna turns 40 October. That’s not old, certaly a job where the average age is 50-ish. But he’s had a bisg, attrnal ri. As much as he appeals to voters om both the ma parti, he clearly appears to threaten the policians om both wgs. An example: 2013, emerged that the earlit parison between Umunna and Obama was ma 2008, on a Wikipedia page that was actually created on a puter the law firm then employg Umunna. Not a great look, and when the prime mister David Cameron tnted him the Commons, “Can we change our Wikipedia entry? Y we n!” the le got lghs om the Tory MPs, as you’d expect, but also guffaws om the Labour bench.</p><p data-no-id="52" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Polics is a greased pole, wh the participants scrabblg to reach the top like nttants on a Japane game show. That’s not news, but Umunna do appear to get sgled out for special vrl. The week we first met, he was embroiled a new row about unpaid terns. I’ll spare you the back-and-forth, but the matter end wh the hashtag #PayUpCha trendg, and a briefg note sent to the entire party remdg them of Labour policy on the matter. “Poor Cha,” the <em>New Statman’</em>s “Media Mole” mented. “A salutary lson: for the lear’s office, revenge is a dish bt served ont of all 256 of your lleagu.” A proment Labour figure, who asked not to be named, tells me: “They are gog for him, oh totally. Anythg they n do to take him down a peg or two.” </p><p data-no-id="53" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna is not at all easy to get a read on. You have nversatns wh him that you n’t image havg wh any other Brish polician (about the Fridge, say, or the protracted discsn he has wh the schoolkids Brixton about how Clarks’ Wallabe, which he ed to wear, and Kickers, which he didn't, are now on trend aga). He has a sharp telligence, and he’s drawn to tractable problems: Brex, wh s fe, abstse technili is perfect for him this regard. You jt know he mt have been a formidable lawyer. And, to me at least, he seems scere his drive to improve liv, addrs equaly. But Umunna, to tker wh Alastair Campbell’s claratn, don’t do vulnerabily. I felt that I uld have terviewed him for 100 hours and the <em>real</em> Umunna would have remaed a mystery. And perhaps this is fair and sensible: he has the nate spicns of a man who knows he has many enemi sperate for him to slip up. </p><p data-no-id="54" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Our teractns for this article fell to a pattern. I’d tell Umunna that beg a member of parliament looked like a relentls grd, and he’d reply that he had the bt job the world. “Look, polics n be tough,” he says. “Now you say all that, you make me thk I should be miserable! Ha ha! I’m an optimist, right.” Umunna has many showy quali, but the past three years have revealed a new one: rilience. “You get a very thick sk, I suppose,” he says. “You have to this job.”</p><p data-no-id="55" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Umunna gets lled an Is, and a rare — but clearly nsired — moment of fallibily, he don’t entirely dismiss the suggtn that he rose too high, too fast. “The problem is, you n get a b dnk on that,” he says. “Particularly if you’re new to polics.”</p><div size="medium" data-embed="body-image" data-no-id="56" class="align-center size-medium embed css-1736von e1xqj1sx4"><div class="css-uwraif e1xqj1sx3"><div class="css-p7qblm ewcw41w0"><img alt="Su, Formal wear, Whe-llar worker, Event, Bsperson, Tuxedo, Management, Employment, Conversatn, Gture, " tle="Su, Formal wear, Whe-llar worker, Event, Bsperson, Tuxedo, Management, Employment, Conversatn, Gture, " loadg="lazy" width="1299" height="854" dg="async" data-nimg="1" style="lor: transparent; width: 100%; height: to;" siz="100vw" srcSet=" 640w, 980w, 1120w, 1200w, 1920w" src="" class="css-0 exi4f7p0" /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="// Uk&" class="ptert css-1i6sckr e1c1bym14"><img data-dynamic-svg src="/_assets/sign-tokens/e/static/ins/social/" loadg="lazy" alt="ptert in" height="to" width="to" class="css-1l3i1cl ewcw41w1" /></a></div><div class="css-swqnqv e1xqj1sx2"><div class="css-8h7i7x e1xqj1sx1">Umunna wh Emmanuel Macron, then France’s mister of enomy, dtry and digal affairs, paris, october 2015</div><figptn class="css-1am3yn9 enfs9c50"><span class="css-1mcfn5x e6iqd2">-</span></figptn></div></div></div><p data-no-id="57" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Is that what happened then? “I hope I didn’t… Maybe I did a b. But I don’t thk I did. What do I thk?” He leav a long pse, which is even more noticeable such a fluent speaker. “I don’t thk I was dnk on , but ’s a good qutn to ask. Maybe I’d say, I got slightly rried away wh that. The other thg polics, I thk Print Macron acknowledg this, is that what you do is only half the story. You don’t ntrol time and place often. And I suppose that’s the thg.”</p><p data-no-id="58" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">Macron is some ways a touchstone for Umunna: same age, siar polics. They met when Umunna was shadow bs secretary and Macron was François Hollan’s mister of enomy, dtry and digal affairs. Before Macron lnched his party En Marche! he shared the plans wh Umunna — “I was que bowled over by ,” he says, “very bold” — and ’s said they still swap texts, though Umunna won’t nfirm. Another kdred spir is Canada’s Prime Mister Jt T. When T was London earlier this year, there were unnfirmed reports that Umunna anised a gatherg for him and young centre-left policians and activists a pub jt off Trafalgar Square. Aga, Umunna’s sayg nothg.</p><p data-no-id="59" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">But, Umunna nces, Bra is not France; the polil system is closer to Canada, which also has first-past-the-post electns, but there are plenty of differenc, too. Right now, his strategy is startg to mirror the playbook of a very different polician. Like Umunna, he sat on the backbench of the Hoe of Commons for years pog views that seemed not only unfashnable but om the zegeist. He was beloved his London nstuency, but there was a perceptn that he was too divisive, too much of a rebel, not a team player. No one believed he uld une his party, let alone galvanise the untry behd him.</p><p data-no-id="60" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0">For Corbyn 2015 you uld read Umunna 2022. You n almost hear the chants at Glastonbury: “Oh Cha Umunnaaa…!” It sns rather well. </p><p data-no-id="61" class="css-aeyldl et3p2gv0"><strong><em><style data-emotn="css umdwtv">{-webk-text-ratn:unrle;text-ratn:unrle;text-ratn-thickns:.0625rem;text-ratn-lor:#FF3A30;text-unrle-offset:0.25rem;lor:her;-webk-transn:background 0.4s;transn:background 0.4s;background:lear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webk-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}{lor:#000000;text-ratn-lor:borr-lk-body-hover;-webk-background-posn:100% 100%;background-posn:100% 100%;}</style><a href=" target="_blank" data-vars-ga-outbound-lk=" data-vars-ga-ux-element="Hyperlk" data-vars-ga-ll-to-actn="Cha Umunna will be appearg at Esquire Townhoe 2018." class="body-lk css-umdwtv et3p2gv0">Cha Umunna will be appearg at Esquire Townhoe 2018.</a></em></strong></p></div></div><div data-teractive="WatchNext-1" class="css-0 e10xr3vp6"><style data-emotn="css 1pqv15d">{marg-bottom:1.875rem;marg-top:1.875rem;paddg:0 0.938rem;}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{paddg:0 2.5rem;}}</style><div data-embed="watch-next" class="css-1pqv15d e10xr3vp5"><style data-emotn="css 604vx7">{text-align:center;marg:0 to;max-width:60rem;borr-top:0.125rem solid #15263D;}</style><div class="css-604vx7 e10xr3vp4"><style data-emotn="css 1sowyjy">{marg-bottom:1.25rem;}</style><div class="css-1sowyjy e10xr3vp3"><style data-emotn="css ju94x7">{marg:0rem;font-weight:normal;background-lor:#ffffff;lor:#000;borr:0.125rem solid #15263D;text-align:left;width:-webk-f-ntent;width:-moz-f-ntent;width:f-ntent;borr-radi:2rem;display:block;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.70028rem;le-height:1.2;letter-spacg:0.04rem;marg-top:-1rem;paddg:0.5rem 0.9375rem 0.25rem;text-transform:upperse;}</style><h6 class="css-ju94x7 e10xr3vp2"><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p0"></span><span class="css-0 e10xr3vp1">Watch Next</span><span aria-hidn="te" class="css-0 eagam8p1"></span></h6><style data-emotn="css un61">{-webk-align-ems:center;-webk-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-ems:center;display:-webk-box;display:-webk-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;font-fay:Lsanne,Lsanne-fallback,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;-webk-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webk-jtify-ntent:center;jtify-ntent:center;marg:0rem;m-height:to;paddg-top:1rem;text-align:left;}@media(max-width: 48rem){{font-size:1.5rem;le-height:1.1;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{font-size:1.875rem;le-height:1.3;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{font-size:2.125rem;le-height:1.2;}}</style><h6 class="css-un61 e10xr3vp0"> </h6></div><style data-emotn="css b3y6x">{marg-bottom:0.9375rem;--aspect-rat:56.25%;} {posn:absolute;marg:0rem;}{ntent:"";display:block;height:0rem;width:100%;}@media(max-width: 30rem){{paddg-bottom:lc((45% / 1.16) + 20px + 1.66em);}}@media(m-width: 30rem) and (max-width: 48rem){{paddg-bottom:lc((45% / 1.43) + 20px + 1.66em);}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem) and (max-width: 64rem){{paddg-bottom:lc((33% / 1.40) + 20px + 1.66em);}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{paddg-bottom:lc((25% / 1.36) + 20px + 1.66em);}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{paddg-bottom:lc((25% / 1.46) + 20px + 1.66em);}}</style><div class="__rp-ntaer css-b3y6x e6l0f0"><style data-emotn="css 1yu8e3d">{marg-bottom:0.9375rem;width:100%;height:100%;} .__rp-ntaer{height:to;}</style><div data-embed="embed-vio" class="vio-player css-1yu8e3d e1ou1fny0"><style data-emotn="css 1uds6oo">{height:100%;width:100%;posn:relative;}</style><div class="css-1uds6oo e1f7ylgd6"><style data-emotn="css w2pm9t">{background-lor:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);borr:.1875rem solid whe;borr-radi:50%;lor:#fff;cursor:poter;height:3.75rem;left:50%;posn:absolute;-webk-transform:translate(-50%,-50%);-moz-transform:translate(-50%,-50%);-ms-transform:translate(-50%,-50%);transform:translate(-50%,-50%);-webk-transn:all 0.4s;transn:all 0.4s;width:3.75rem;z-x:1;}.e1f7ylgd6:hover {background-lor:rgba(33, 150, 245, 0.8);lor:#ffffff;}@media(m-width: 20rem){{top:26%;}}@media(m-width: 30rem){{top:29.5%;}}@media(m-width: 40.625rem){{top:32.5%;}}@media(m-width: 48rem){{top:34.5%;height:5.625rem;width:5.625rem;borr:.28125rem solid whe;}}@media(m-width: 64rem){{top:35%;}}@media(m-width: 75rem){{top:35.8%;}}</style><button aria-label="Play Vio" class="css-w2pm9t e1f7ylgd1"><style data-emotn="css 1lhf7lq">{fill:#ffffff;height:1.4rem;vertil-align:middle;width:1.45rem;}@media(m-width: 48rem){{width:2.3125rem;height:3rem;}}</style><svg xmlns=" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" style="fill: var(--primary, #000);" role="img" tle="Play" class="css-1lhf7lq e1f7ylgd2"><tle>play in.