Umunna to warn Labour over TINY minority ethnic voter switch to Tories – what’s he trying to prove?
Umunna is also set to launch, with Keith Vaz, a Labour inquiry into how the party can retain and extend minority ethnic support [Image: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images].
If members of minority ethnic groups left Labour to back the Tories, it could simply mean they couldn’t see the point of supporting the watered-down Tory policies Chuka favoured and decided to back the genuine article instead.
This was before certain revelations about David Cameron but we could still describe it as “going the whole hog”.
(Remember, Chuka helped torpedo Labour’s chances by suggesting the recruitment of arch-Tory Michael Heseltine to help formulate certain policies.)
None of the above mitigates against the inquiry he is launching with Keith Vaz, to find out how Labour can restore and extend its minority ethnic support.
It is a good idea.
But This Writer has doubts about the report it will submit.
Chuka doesn’t like Corbyn’s policies, and he doesn’t like Corbyn’s return to real Labour values.
If his inquiry shows that Labour will win more minority voters with Corbyn’s policies, will he swallow his pride and admit it?
Or will he put forward more of his semi-Tory dribble, even though he knows Labour will lose voters with it?
Chuka Umunna will tell Labour on Saturday that it cannot afford to be complacent about its minority ethnic voters, saying “alarm bells should be ringing” about how many are switching to the Conservatives.
Although Labour still has a large lead among the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) electorate, Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, will say the Tories made considerable progress with these voters at the 2015 election and that they are trying to overtake Labour in having a greater number of BAME MPs.
Addressing the Unison national black members conference in Wales, Umunna will also announce that he and Keith Vaz, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, are launching an inquiry to investigate what more Labour can do to retain and extend its minority ethnic support.
The inquiry, which will be independent from Labour HQ but which has the backing of Jeremy Corbyn, will publish terms of reference within the next few weeks and invite submissions from those wanting to give evidence.
Source: Umunna to warn Labour over minority ethnic voter switch to Tories | Politics | The Guardian
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I know what his point is – he’s on the backbenches making his points to anybody that will hear him (including the rightwing press) in the event that should he grab enough support from the party at Westminster he could instigate a coup – what he forgets is his support needs to grow in the country before that happens – and that’s unlikely to occur if he’s sniping against his own leader.
When I first heard about Chuka, I thought he was going to be “a British Obama! in the Labour Party. Labour voters are facing never ending “Tory austerity” during this harsh winter.Chuka Umunna looks & sounds more like a Tory in our Labour Party!!!!
I presume he has produced corroborating evidence to back his claim, a report, a poll anything that could be called indicative of his claim? Perhaps after digging deep enough somebody could get back to me with this investigation of Chuka’s.
On the other hand, if he has no basis for making this claim, then he has once again proved himself a traitor to the LP and needs to throw in his lot with the Tories which is where he truly belongs.
Chuka out of the labour party cross the floor just another tory in a red tie jeff3
The fact he is working with Keith Vaz (named by many of his own constituents as the – be warned offensive – “Coconut”) says it all for me!
A cynical person might think he’s trying to look after his own tory-lite arse as an ethnic minority ‘nominally’ labour mp…..