Monday Interview: Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna
The shadow business secretary, a potential heir to Blair, makes no rash promises despite burden of expectation.
By Louise ArmisteadThe Telegraph
Chuka Umunna was once described as a British Barack Obama, back when the President was hailed as the saviour of America, and even the world.
Never mind if he wrote the comparison himself, as The Sun claimed in an
investigation of Umunna’s Wikipedia entry, because the shadow business
secretary now faces a strikingly similar burden of expectation. From Labour,
at least.
Look at the view in Brighton today: the party is gathering to discuss economic
policy, when it seems as if they’ve been getting it wrong for three years.
Again. Ed Balls will say he was right to argue against George Osborne’s
recovery strategy, but economic indicators are against him.
Ed Miliband desperately needs to win business support – and not just to plug
the void in Labour’s finances emerging from his bust-up with the unions.\
But corporate leaders, once so close to Tony Blair’s New Labour, are highly
sceptical of Miliband and his threat to raise a raft of taxes, including a
mansion tax, income tax, and another bank levy.
With Balls floundering, and Ed looking a shade too red, Labour is resting its
hopes increasingly on the Member for Streatham. Umunna, who has been an MP
only since 2010, made his name quickly with his grilling of bankers in front
of the Treasury Select Committee. Sitting in his office in Portcullis House,
Umunna, 34, admits that Labour’s messages to business have “sometimes been
tough”. He’s won plaudits for trying to boost local traders with plans for
Small Business Saturday in December. But Umunna insists he is seeking “very
much to work in partnership with all businesses and their leaderships”.
He points to the “big names” heading to the Labour conference today: EADS, Santander, Microsoft, Barclays, Heathrow. Business attendance is up 35pc from last year, he says, though he admits it’s still below the “heyday of New Labour in the early Noughties”.
\
Umunna, who supported Miliband to become leader, doesn’t claim to be the elusive “heir to Blair”. But he does allow a comparison with the other New Labour architect and former Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson.
He says in forming business policies he has the fundamental support of his shadow ministers – unlike Vince Cable in the Coalition. “Implementing an industrial strategy is a government-wide activity, it can’t just be the preserve of the Business Department,” he says. “The problem Vince has is that he has lacked the clout Peter Mandelson had across government to be able to ensure delivery of what’s he trying to do.”
So Umunna firmly rejects Nick Clegg’s vision of a permanent Coalition, albeit with a trademark big laugh. But if he wants to claim the New Labour territory, he has the credentials.
His upbringing was firmly centre ground: privately educated, a chorister in Southwark Cathedral, a student in Manchester and Burgundy, and then eight years at Herbert Smith, the blue-blooded City law firm.
Umunna’s mother is a solicitor and daughter of Sir Helenus Milmo, the High Court judge who was part of the prosecution team at the Nuremberg trials. He says he still sees her often for “Sunday roast”. But he describes his late father as his “inspiration” and the “reason I’m in politics”.
Born in Nigeria, Umunna’s father arrived in Liverpool in 1961. Heading to London on a fare borrowed from a stranger, he worked in kitchens and washed cars and taught himself accountancy and business. “He washed limousines – which was great, because once he had cleaned the cars, he could sit in the back of them and study,” says Umunna. His father set up an import-export company trading with Africa, which he ran until a fatal car accident in 1992. Last week, Umunna wooed an instinctively hostile Institute of Directors’ annual convention by telling the story and then whipping out his father’s IoD membership card.
“What drives me is ensuring people can achieve their aspirations,” he says. “Promoting social mobility is something that goes to the core of my politics.
I want to see more people go on and do what he did.” In July, Umunna led a trade mission for UKTI to Nigeria and Ghana, confirming his view that the UK is failing to capitalise on its “historic ties” with Africa.
“My big worry is that we focus on the Bric [Brazil, Russia, India, China] economies at the expense of the next wave of economies coming up behind them,” he says. “Mozambique, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria all have far higher annual growth rates than most European countries.”
But how to boost trade is another matter. Labour’s leaders have been accused of being heavy on criticism and light on policies. The British Chambers of Commerce has demanded that the Opposition today gives policy answers on six key areas: financing, infrastructure, trade, education, Europe and creating an “environment in which business can survive”.
Umunna insists that Ed Balls has not been discredited. “We argued that extreme consolidation would choke off growth – we didn’t say 'no consolidation at all’,” he says. “If Ed Balls had been wrong, we wouldn’t have had almost three years of no growth.”
And far from fixing the economy, he reckons George Osborne is creating a new housing bubble. “If you couple the lowest rate of new-build since the 1920s with measures that stoke demand, you are at risk of creating another housing bubble,” he says. “House prices are rising at five times the rate of wages and are three times more expensive than the US.”
Arguing that the UK is falling back on its old habits of being “too reliant for growth on financing, housing and consumption”, he says Labour has more radical solutions. “Sorting out financing” is top of his agenda. Labour has pledged a British Investment Bank that would fund businesses itself and also via regional banks. “We’re planning a proper stand-alone entity, not like the Business Bank that Vince Cable is running out of a few desks in the Business Department,” he says.
“The problem with Funding for Lending, Credit Easing and Project Merlin is that the main mechanisms for their transmission are high street banks – the very banks that people say are the obstacle to getting the financing they need.”
Umunna also promises to “address” business rates. “On the high street, business rates is the number one issue right now,” he says. “I can’t make promises now but I will say I get it and I’m having lots of conversations about it.” There’s a similar hedge over High Speed 2 – “We’re supportive in principle but we’re not going to write a blank cheque.” But he’s insistent that the UK should stay in the European Union.
“Those who say we need to export to the world but we can forget about Europe are absurd,” he says. “Europe is the key that opens all the doors to the emerging markets. We are far stronger sitting in negotiations with China with half a billion people behind us than just the UK population of under 70m.”
He adds: “We need to reform our relationship with the EU, but we won’t do that by putting a gun to our partners’ heads and saying 'do what we want’.”
Umunna says the past few years have been about reforming relationships, most recently Labour’s ties with the unions. He says the party’s links with business will also be different.
“We want to celebrate companies that have good business models, which promote long-term sustainable value creation, who value their people and see business as part of society.” He adds: “During our time in government, we weren’t always discerning about the kinds of business models and practices we want to see.
I think everybody, business included, realizes we can’t go back to 2008-09 'business as usual’.”
He points to the “big names” heading to the Labour conference today: EADS, Santander, Microsoft, Barclays, Heathrow. Business attendance is up 35pc from last year, he says, though he admits it’s still below the “heyday of New Labour in the early Noughties”.
\
Umunna, who supported Miliband to become leader, doesn’t claim to be the elusive “heir to Blair”. But he does allow a comparison with the other New Labour architect and former Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson.
He says in forming business policies he has the fundamental support of his shadow ministers – unlike Vince Cable in the Coalition. “Implementing an industrial strategy is a government-wide activity, it can’t just be the preserve of the Business Department,” he says. “The problem Vince has is that he has lacked the clout Peter Mandelson had across government to be able to ensure delivery of what’s he trying to do.”
So Umunna firmly rejects Nick Clegg’s vision of a permanent Coalition, albeit with a trademark big laugh. But if he wants to claim the New Labour territory, he has the credentials.
His upbringing was firmly centre ground: privately educated, a chorister in Southwark Cathedral, a student in Manchester and Burgundy, and then eight years at Herbert Smith, the blue-blooded City law firm.
Umunna’s mother is a solicitor and daughter of Sir Helenus Milmo, the High Court judge who was part of the prosecution team at the Nuremberg trials. He says he still sees her often for “Sunday roast”. But he describes his late father as his “inspiration” and the “reason I’m in politics”.
Born in Nigeria, Umunna’s father arrived in Liverpool in 1961. Heading to London on a fare borrowed from a stranger, he worked in kitchens and washed cars and taught himself accountancy and business. “He washed limousines – which was great, because once he had cleaned the cars, he could sit in the back of them and study,” says Umunna. His father set up an import-export company trading with Africa, which he ran until a fatal car accident in 1992. Last week, Umunna wooed an instinctively hostile Institute of Directors’ annual convention by telling the story and then whipping out his father’s IoD membership card.
“What drives me is ensuring people can achieve their aspirations,” he says. “Promoting social mobility is something that goes to the core of my politics.
I want to see more people go on and do what he did.” In July, Umunna led a trade mission for UKTI to Nigeria and Ghana, confirming his view that the UK is failing to capitalise on its “historic ties” with Africa.
“My big worry is that we focus on the Bric [Brazil, Russia, India, China] economies at the expense of the next wave of economies coming up behind them,” he says. “Mozambique, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria all have far higher annual growth rates than most European countries.”
But how to boost trade is another matter. Labour’s leaders have been accused of being heavy on criticism and light on policies. The British Chambers of Commerce has demanded that the Opposition today gives policy answers on six key areas: financing, infrastructure, trade, education, Europe and creating an “environment in which business can survive”.
Umunna insists that Ed Balls has not been discredited. “We argued that extreme consolidation would choke off growth – we didn’t say 'no consolidation at all’,” he says. “If Ed Balls had been wrong, we wouldn’t have had almost three years of no growth.”
And far from fixing the economy, he reckons George Osborne is creating a new housing bubble. “If you couple the lowest rate of new-build since the 1920s with measures that stoke demand, you are at risk of creating another housing bubble,” he says. “House prices are rising at five times the rate of wages and are three times more expensive than the US.”
Arguing that the UK is falling back on its old habits of being “too reliant for growth on financing, housing and consumption”, he says Labour has more radical solutions. “Sorting out financing” is top of his agenda. Labour has pledged a British Investment Bank that would fund businesses itself and also via regional banks. “We’re planning a proper stand-alone entity, not like the Business Bank that Vince Cable is running out of a few desks in the Business Department,” he says.
“The problem with Funding for Lending, Credit Easing and Project Merlin is that the main mechanisms for their transmission are high street banks – the very banks that people say are the obstacle to getting the financing they need.”
Umunna also promises to “address” business rates. “On the high street, business rates is the number one issue right now,” he says. “I can’t make promises now but I will say I get it and I’m having lots of conversations about it.” There’s a similar hedge over High Speed 2 – “We’re supportive in principle but we’re not going to write a blank cheque.” But he’s insistent that the UK should stay in the European Union.
“Those who say we need to export to the world but we can forget about Europe are absurd,” he says. “Europe is the key that opens all the doors to the emerging markets. We are far stronger sitting in negotiations with China with half a billion people behind us than just the UK population of under 70m.”
He adds: “We need to reform our relationship with the EU, but we won’t do that by putting a gun to our partners’ heads and saying 'do what we want’.”
Umunna says the past few years have been about reforming relationships, most recently Labour’s ties with the unions. He says the party’s links with business will also be different.
“We want to celebrate companies that have good business models, which promote long-term sustainable value creation, who value their people and see business as part of society.” He adds: “During our time in government, we weren’t always discerning about the kinds of business models and practices we want to see.
I think everybody, business included, realizes we can’t go back to 2008-09 'business as usual’.”
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