Way back in 2015, Chuka Umunna first put himself forward as a potential leader of the Labour Party, after Ed Miliband's resignation, and then withdrew from the contest citing a reluctance to accept the degree of scrutiny which being a candidate would bring. Ever since, he has made his home on the back benches of the House of Commons, sniping at both his own Party's leadership and those of any party who supported the result of the Brexit referendum.
Yesterday, he emerged as the de facto leader of the small group of otherwise largely anonymous Labour MPs who resigned from their Party and set up 'The Independent Group'. Umunna talks in lofty terms to the effect that "our politics is broken" or "we need a new kind of politics" or "politics has become too tribal" and so on. By all of these grandiose terms, what he really means is that the Labour Party isn't doing what he wants, so he's left it. Good for him.
However, what does he do next ? If it wasn't for Brexit, none of this would have happened. Umunna would have remained a back bencher and bided his time until the next opportunity for high office came along, for he is nothing if not ambitious. In Brexit, he's seen an opportunity to make a name for himself as being the man who saved the nation from disaster; his obvious hope is that other MPs will now leap to their feet and rush to join his rag-bag of a Group and that, together, they'll stop Brexit. He'll become a hero and succeed Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader, and Saviour, of the Labour Party, having been welcomed back into the fold. After that, it'll be huge electoral triumph and the door of number 10 wide open for him.
How naïve.
Umunna is an oily, arrogant, disingenuous and privileged (yes, he went to a private school) member of the liberal elite. He has nothing in common with the bulk of Labour Party membership nor, it must be added, with the bulk of Conservatives. He has no understanding of democracy, and cares nothing for it, as is demonstrated by his total lack of respect for the result of the 2016 referendum. Typical of a certain type of politician, once elected, he will do what he wants regardless of what the electorate wants, because he knows better than they what is good for them.
When Umunna shied away from challenging for the leadership of the labour Party in 2015, could it really have been because he didn't want the spotlight directed at him ? Given his behaviour since then, not least his high profile action of yesterday, this seems most unlikely. Far more likely is that he realised that he had little if any chance of winning and would probably have come close to bottom of the poll, as did his chosen endorsee, Liz Kendall. Rather than risk this, an outcome which could have been fatal to any future leadership challenge, he chose to withdraw for the most fatuous of reasons; for heaven's sake, being a Member of Parliament automatically draws attention and scrutiny and he's always sought it.
His ambition is to be Prime Minister and yesterday's staged event was simply an attempt to set himself on the path to glory in a different way. It might easily turn out to be his political death knell instead.
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