Chuka Harrison Umunna//ⓘ (/ˈtʃʊkəəˈmuːnə/; born 17 October 1978) is a British businessman and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He left Labour in February 2019, when he resigned to form The Independent Group, later Change UK, along with six other MPs. Later in 2019, he left Change UK and, after a short time as an independent MP, joined the Liberal Democrats. In the 2019 general election, he failed to be re-elected, and did not return to the House of Commons.
In 2021, Umunna joined JPMorgan Chase as Managing Director of its Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) advisory group in London. In July 2024, he was promoted to Global Head of Sustainable Solutions & EMEA Head of Green Economy Investment Banking, where he will co-lead the firm's global ESG practice.[1]
Early life and career
Umunna was born in Lambeth, south London, on 17 October 1978.[2][3] His father, Bennett, of the Nigerian Igbo ethnic group and owner of an import-export business,[4] died in a road accident in Nigeria in 1992.[5] His mother, Patricia Milmo, a solicitor, is of English-Irish background.[4][6] His maternal grandparents were Joan Frances Morley, Lady Milmo and Sir Helenus MilmoQC, a High Court judge.[7][8]
Following 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 and advising companies on contentious, transactional and advisory matters.[14] 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.[15][16] He founded and edited the online political magazine, The Multicultural Politic.[17] In 2007, he campaigned in support of Jon Cruddas' unsuccessful bid to become Labour deputy leader.[citation needed]
In June 2010, Umunna was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee.[27] In January 2011, he 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.[28] In response to his question, Diamond stated in February 2011 that Barclays had paid £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009, despite making £11.6bn in profit.[29] Umunna held this position on the Select Committee until his appointment as 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.[30]
A member of the Labour Friends of Israel, he and Liam Byrne made an official visit to Israel in October 2012 as part of the LFI's UK-Israel Economic Dialogue group.[35][36][37] Whilst a member of LFI, he condemned Israel's military courts for their treatment of Palestinian children accused of combat offences in December 2013.[38]
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".[39][40] 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.[41]
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.[42]
In early May 2014, Umunna raised concerns in Parliament[43] and public over the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca, by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, on the grounds of ensuring British jobs and interests.[44] 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".[45] The takeover bid eventually fell through in late May 2014 after the AstraZeneca board rejected Pfizer's final offer.[46]
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".[47]
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.[48][49][50][51]
Umunna increased his majority to 13,934 at the 2015 general election, with 53% of the vote in his constituency.[52] Following Labour's defeat in the election and resignation of Ed Miliband as leader, Umunna was identified as one of the potential candidates to take over as leader of the party.[53] He called for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters",[54] saying that the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well."[55] On 12 May, he announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership election.[56] 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".[57] On 26 May, he announced his endorsement of Liz Kendall, who was unsuccessful in her bid for the Labour leadership.[58]
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".[66] 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.[67]
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.[68] 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."[69]
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."[70] 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.[71]
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.[75][76] 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.[77][78] Subsequently, Change UK's new leader, Anna Soubry, said that Umunna had made a "serious mistake" in leaving the party.[79][80]
Liberal Democrats
On 13 June 2019, Umunna announced to The Times he would be joining the Liberal Democrats.[81] He told the BBC he had been "wrong" to think "millions of politically homeless people wanted a new party", while referring to moving from Change UK. He also said 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%.[82] He added, under Britain's voting system, there would not be "room for more than one centre ground" party in a general election.[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 good handful" of other MPs may defect to the Liberal Democrats.[84]
In September 2019, in his first major speech to the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, Umunna argued Britain was unable to exert its moral authority against authoritarian leaders in the world at a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was threatening to break the law over Brexit.[85]
Since April 2020, Umunna has been a non-executive director of Advanced and an adviser to Digital Identity Net UK.[89]
In July 2020 Umunna was appointed executive director and head of the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) consultancy within the specialist capital markets and financial services team at public relations and marketing consultancy firm Edelman UK. Umunna said about the appointment "If we're to fundamentally change the model of capitalism we've got to ensure that the overwhelming majority of businesses are integrating ESG factors into corporate decision making like never before."[14][90]
On 12 April 2021 he joined the investment bank JPMorgan Chase as Managing Director and the head of its ESG advisory efforts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and co-leading the global ESG investment banking team.[91][92][93] In 2022, Umunna was part of the JPMorgan team advising Vesa Equity, the investment business of Daniel Kretinsky, on their British investments which included 23% of Royal Mail.[94][95] He has been criticised by newspapers for being extremely highly paid in the banking industry despite prior criticism of the industry's high pay.[96]
Personal life
Umunna is married to Alice Sullivan, an employment lawyer. The couple have a daughter, born in 2017.[65] He is a Crystal Palace F.C. fan.[97] He has said that his politics and moral values come from Christianity, but that he is "not majorly religious".[98][99]
Several years before he left politics, Umunna was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2015.[100]
^Boland, Hannah (3 June 2020). "Chuka Umunna joins board of software firm Advanced". The Telegraph. ISSN0307-1235. Retrieved 25 August 2020. It was one of three posts he announced on Wednesday. They included advisory roles at Signal AI, a market intelligence firm and Digital Identity Net, a specialist in identity verification technology for banks.
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