Umunna’s demand for an election inquiry is redundant in more ways than one

Last Updated: May 6, 2018By Tags: , , ,

Does anybody else find it extremely odd that Chuka Umunna has publicly demanded an internal inquiry into Labour’s local election campaign when the party was bound to hold one in any case?

I expect every political organisation involved in the local elections on May 3 will be holding its own post-mortem (so to speak) into their campaign, the reception it received, and the results.

So it seems redundant that Mr Umunna has turned to the national media to demand one. Could it be possible that he has another reason for doing so?

Chuka Umunna called for an internal inquiry into Labour’s local election campaign, warning that the results cannot leave it confident of success at the next national poll.

No local election can ever leave a political party confidence of national success; they are not the same.

Mr Umunna said the advances which could be expected at this stage in the electoral cycle under a “divided and incompetent” Government had failed to materialise.

It seems he was taken in by the raised expectations which, it seems, the Conservatives instilled in the public.

Labour talked down the party’s expectations for the election – and rightly so, considering some of the developments that have happened recently.

They include the NCC’s decision to victimise a black anti-racism campaigner by calling him a racist; the party leadership’s apparent inability to decry accusations of anti-Semitism for what they are – attempts to blow a small problem hugely out of proportion; and of course the failure of 78 Labour MPs to support a Parliamentary motion demanding that Tory racism, in the form of the ‘hostile environment’ policy that led to the Windrush scandal, receive a proper airing with the publication of all documents relating to it.

Mr Umunna told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that “the whole Labour leadership” had to address the failure to capitalise on Government divisions, faltering Brexit negotiations and voter concern over the economy and public services.

These are all Westminster-related.

“From a Labour point of view there needs to be a proper post-mortem – I think the National Executive Committee should appoint somebody to do that – on this result,” said the Streatham MP.

“We haven’t gone forwards and if we are looking to form an election-winning majority, we cannot be confident of that happening based on the results yesterday.”

Mr Umunna said that concern over anti-Semitism allegations had “undeniably” been a factor in areas such as Barnet, along with “frustration” that Labour’s Brexit policy is not “more distinct” from the Government’s.

Perhaps Mr Umunna should research those concerns. It would be interesting to see if he found the same problems as some of those who have most stridently voiced them.

“We outperformed expectations at the general election last year, but the fact of the matter is that Labour didn’t win the general election,” he said.

“You would expect after eight years of Tory government and in the wake of the resignations of several senior ministers… Labour to be making far greater gains.

Not necessarily. The seats contested on May 3 were last up for election in 2014, when Labour won a historically high number of them. It does not follow that Labour would necessarily win a huge number more – although in fact the difference between the number Labour won and those the Tories lost was 100, and that’s a pretty hefty difference.

“Either we can pat ourselves on the back and celebrate not winning as a victory, or we focus ruthlessly on how we can make sure that we advance social democratic values and build a fairer, more equal Britain by winning the next general election.”

Mr Umunna is, of course, a member of the Labour Right. For them, not winning is a way of life now.

Source: Jeremy Corbyn critic Chuka Umunna calls for inquiry into Labour’s local election campaign – Mirror Online


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No Comments

  1. john thatcher May 6, 2018 at 3:18 pm - Reply

    I find Umunna’s call impertinent in the extreme!

  2. Wanda Lozinska May 6, 2018 at 5:07 pm - Reply

    Umunna did his best to scupper Labour’s chances in a radio interview he gave just before polling day. In spite of this Labour did very well indeed. Of course they would have liked to do even better but these turned out to be unrealistic expectations. Eg needed 14 seats to win Wandsworth but they did win 7 of them.

    Also, they didn’t do so well in the 2017 local elections but did extremely well in the 2017 General Election.

    Strange how UKIPpers still seem to be fighting for Brexit, which is irrelevant to the local elections where services should be the main issue.

  3. Ray May 6, 2018 at 5:25 pm - Reply

    it is about time he went and joined his real party the torys as he is no way a labour person

  4. aunty1960 May 6, 2018 at 6:33 pm - Reply

    OK. Who is Leading these Ragbags? Who is whispering and guiding and directing them as to what to do and say everytime they think Corbyn has made a mistake a media PR stunt can be made advantage of?

    Because it is certainly NOT THEM

    It is orchestrated and coordinated, same as the coups and mass resignations from front bench.

    So question has to be not the front mouths but who is the svengali and shapeshifters behind?

    So take the eyes off the front and look behind.

    Maybe we should ask the Russians to hack their emails.

  5. Vanda May 6, 2018 at 7:20 pm - Reply

    I’m getting so fed up with this now. Yet if we dare to pass our opinions we are labelled as abusers, just for having a DIFFERENT opinion.

    The Blairites must now just accept that their policies, and indeed their hero Bliar, have had their day. Noone wants them. Noone is interested any more. It’s why Labour lost the last two elections (before the one last year) – people are fed up with their centrist, self-serving attitude and want the Labour Party to return to its roots. To what it’s supposed to be. A SOCIALIST party.

    Now if the pink tories in the party don’t like this, they’re free to leave and form another party. See how far they get when they’re not hanging on Corbyn’s coat tails. They’d fade into self-absorbed obscurity.

    We should take steps to ensure that trouble makers, especially those who constantly scream abuse when anyone dares defend Corbyn or speak out against them, have no place in our party. I’m simply fed up with all the bitterness, the vitriol and the endless infighting and snide remarks constantly coming out of their mouths.

    No, I’m not racist or antisemitic or anything else they can think up. I’m utterly fed up of this venomous, draining, never-ending onslaught against a thoroughly decent man who has done more for our party than the last three leaders put together. He’s restored the proper socialist values we lost in 1997. We are not a cult, as they continually try to claim, but we recognise a man who stands for everything we want to see in our party – truth, honesty and respect towards others.

    These MPS may well be good constituency MPs and if that’s the case they’ll have no trouble being reselected. No MP has a job for life. They are there to represent the views of their constituents. Its called DEMOCRACY.

    • Zippi May 8, 2018 at 10:46 pm - Reply

      Unfortunately, it seems to be the way of things, these days, particularly where the internet is concerned; you are no longer entitled to an opinion; if you don’t agree, you have to be wrong and will be labelled; bigot, homophobe, Christian fundamentalist… take your pick. The trouble is that labels are hard to remove, once they have been stuck onto you and new labels follow; untrustworthy, liability… I don’t know what world Umunna lives in but it’s not the same as the on in which I live!

  6. Roland May 6, 2018 at 7:40 pm - Reply

    By by Chuka

  7. Carol Fraser May 6, 2018 at 9:27 pm - Reply

    Chukka Umana’s call for a debate is due to the fact he knows JC’s Brexit hat is damaging the party. 72% of Labour voters want to remain but JC is not listening. Hence the local results could have been better.

  8. Pat Sheehan May 6, 2018 at 11:15 pm - Reply

    Chuka Umunna! Who he? He need Chuka outa! Pronto!

  9. richard kelly May 7, 2018 at 5:30 am - Reply

    yet another delusional back stabbing swine who seems to think that we would trust anything he said………FOOL

  10. Stu May 7, 2018 at 8:32 am - Reply

    Corbyn tries to encourage “kinder politics”, unfortunately Jess Phillips, Chuka Umunna and other less imaginative right-leaning MPs read it as the German “Kinder” which is probably why they behave like little children.

  11. Signor tbf May 7, 2018 at 2:45 pm - Reply

    Hmm

    Who was that on LBC on the eve of the poll blathering about our anti-semitism problem?

    Must’ve been the pantomime Chukka Umunna, of course.

  12. Simon Tucker May 7, 2018 at 3:58 pm - Reply

    Chuka Umunna seems to be in the wrong party: Labour is a democratic socialist party: he claims he is a social democrat. Isn’t that the name of a failed right-wing party, the rump of which merged with the rump of the Liberal Party to form the rump that is the Liberal Democrats?

  13. Zippi May 8, 2018 at 10:57 pm - Reply

    What is wrong with this man? Is his mission to destroy the Party? In the first instance, it was a local election, which is about local issues. Many people don’t vote in the local elections, don’t know who their councillors are etc., aren’t that bothered, or don’t have local roots. I’m not living at home and haven’t lived in that are for years so, I haven’t a clue about what goes on there. More people vote in General Elections, because they are affected dicrectly and it is one’s opportunity to elect a government; no so with local elections. If one is not happy with one’s coucil/lors, it does not follow that one is not happy with the Party; similarly, it dies not follow that because one is happy with £abour, one must like Chuka Umunna. I, for one, wish that he would shut up. His talk is unhelpful, undermining our leader and our democracy, often destructive and distracting. Why run to the media, every time that you have a difference of opinion? If he is not careful, he will end up like Tony Blair; an empty vessel to whom nobody wants to listen.

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