Chuka Umunna, the recently selected Labour candidate in Streatham, has been the object of some fairly wild comparisons with Barack Obama (one is yet to become an MP, and if Chris Nicholson has anything to do with it, certainly won’t become one for a good many years yet; the other is running for President of the United States and is down to the final three).
Sam Coates on the Red Box blog questions Chuka Umunna’s judgement regarding the way he’s responded to these comparisons, but this seems to me to miss the real questions over his judgement. They are over Umunna’s strident support for disgraced Labour councillor Miranda Grell – the one who was convicted and booted out of office for smearing her Liberal Democrat opponent as a paedophile.
His support for Miranda Grell included attacking Liberal Democrat blogger Andy Mayer for merely reporting her arrest in a very dry and factual piece. He posted a comment criticising Andy for reporting the arrest at all, and ending up with this attack:
This is base politics of the worst kind and there will be no winners save for Cllr Grell when she clears her name.
Of course, Grell didn’t clear her name, but instead the conviction stood.
To be fair to Chuka Umunna, he did seem to back away from supporting Miranda Grell all the way through her appeals process (the one which, regularly readers may recall, involved the made up court transcript). But he certainly showed very questionable judgement alongside a rather intolerant attitude to free speech (is factually reporting an arrest really “base politics of the worst kind”?), and I’ve yet to see any public admission of fault on his part for his views and actions. Those, to me, are the real questions that should be asked about his judgement.
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8 Comments
You guys must be worried to get the attacks in this early!
The guy only won on second preferences – lets not give his candidature too much credibility please?!
Chuka Umunna has become the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Streatham constituency beating his nearest rival Steve Reed by a mere 13 votes. Given the current vote in the seat he’s got a good shot at becoming an MP at the next election.
Result in full. First ballot:
Cathy Ashley 60
Dora Dixon-Fyle 7
Steve Reed 143
Naz Sarkar 3
Chuka Umunna 125
Transfers from Cathy, Dora and Naz went 19 to Steve and 50 to Chuka.
Final result
Steve Reed 162
Chuka Umunna 175
Keith Hill described Chuka as a charismatic 21st century candidate.
Leon, what are they supposed to be “worried” about – this is a pretty strong Labour seat at the moment. Umunna presents nothing but an opportunity, he is no threat because we don’t yet hold the seat.
“The guy only won on second preferences – lets not give his candidature too much credibility please?!”
Says someone from the party claiming to be in favour of electoral reform and STV?!
“what are they supposed to be “worried” about”
I don’t know, you tell me! You guys are the ones getting the attacks in loooong before any election is called.
@ Andy: friend of mine lives in Streatham, tells me that a) there’s significant boundary changes and b) Nicholson is running a strong campaign, so while I initially thought it was ‘safe’ I’m told it could be quite marginal, and Labour are definitely planning to fight it hard.
@ K: I have no idea what Doug’s point was either, but given no identifier at all, no evidence that he’s a Lib Dem either.
@ Leon: He’s come across well with local Labour activists and is strong in Compass, so while ‘worried’ isn’t quite the correct term, if Mark wants to highlight potential campaiging issues in such a way they’ll get good Google results all the way up to the next election then that’s his call (nice post slug Mark).
I agree with Leon, the Lib Dems must be worried.
Lib Dems’ views are a microcosm of UK thinking when it comes to promoting talented individuals such as Chuka. Lib Dems should look within their own ranks and walk the talk, especially on social mobility which they are championing at the moment. I don’t see any up and coming Obama’s in their ranks, or Chuka’s for that matter?
The Lib Dems, despite a new Leader, still look as bland as ever, tired and grey. A mere protest vote confined to a nice part of Western England.
Mark could have said, Chucka is a welcome addition to UK politics, but he should have chosen the Lib Dems. Mark’s comments are a poor show.
My vote would be with Chuka
Trying to research the Miranda Grell case… Andy Mayer’s piece is so dry and factual that only invited readers are allowed to see it?