The Run for Labour Leadership

A few days after he announced to stand for Labour leadership, the charismatic Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna recalled his decision – stripping the party of one of its strongest contenders.

The reason he gave for reversing his decision was how uncomfortable he was with the amount of scrutiny his family faced as a result.

However, other critics believe Umunna was another victim of an elegant, silent old-fashioned Westminster character assassination. They cite reasons being of him not showing total allegiance to one party. When he entered into active politics, he was part of the anti-Blairite think tank run by former Gordon Brown aide Neal Lawson. Then as his parliamentary ambitions strengthened, he changed course and started building bridges with the Blairites. He then turned again by endorsing Ed Miliband which was against Blairites and still hit back on Ed by keeping his distance from the Ed team.

This gave the impression of an erratic and unpredictable Umunna and therefore could not be trusted. However some saw him as possessing acute political antenna.

To show the course which the wind was taking, the Blairite camp at the start of last year shifted its allegiance to Dan Jarvis.

Umunna’s race could have well played against him as some skeptics believe that the UK is not yet ready for a ‘black Prime Minister’ and this came at a time when most Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) were calling for tougher measures against immigration into the UK. One shadow cabinet minister is on record saying, ‘all MPs hate Umunna because they are jealous of him’. Since Umunna became an active politician, he has risen up the ladder faster than what would be deemed politically correct by Westminster. So Westminster’s unwritten rules were enforced.

Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn (MP)
(Source: iknowpolitics.org)

Seemingly now leading the race for labour leadership is the much contested MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn. His political career began in 1974 when he was elected to Haringey Council, a role which he kept until his election as MP in 1983. Corbyn describes himself as a democratic socialist and has advocated the renationalisation of public utilities and railways, combating corporate tax evasion and avoidance as an alternative to austerity, unilateral nuclear disarmament and cancellation of the Trident nuclear weapons programme.

Corbyn is a member of a number of trade union groups in parliament which include Unison and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Corbyn was a well known campaigner against apartheid in South Africa and is a prominent member of Amnesty International.

Born on 26 May 1949 in Chippenham, Wiltshire, Corbyn attended Adams’ Grammar School and then briefly North London Polytechnic. In 1974 he married a fellow Labour party councillor in Haringey, Jane Chapman but divorced in 1979. He later married Chilean exile Claudia Brachitta in 1987 with whom he had 3 sons. After a disagreement on which school their son would attend, the couple divorced in 1999. This year, Corbyn married his long term domestic partner; 46-year old Laura Alvarez.