In the last few minutes, Chuka Umunna has confirmed that he will be standing for the Labour leadership. The Streatham MP made the announcement in a video on his Facebook page while in Swindon – presumably to start undoing any claims his rivals will make that he is a candidate who only appeals to Londoners. He said:
Umunna added that he didn’t have much truck with the idea that Labour now needed to take 10 years to rebuild. He said:‘I’m pleased today to be announcing that I will be standing for the leadership of the party. I think we can and we should be winning in seats like in Swindon. North, South, East, West we can absolutely do it as a party.’
The announcement video also included an interview with a candidate who had seen Labour’s vote go both to Ukip and the Tories, which was presumably designed to show that Umunna will be chasing two groups of people in his quest to make Labour electable again. The video itself is quite amateurish, which is probably a deliberate attempt to make the candidate seem less media-savvy than he is. His allies thought that him losing his temper on Sky earlier this year worked to his benefit as it suggested he wasn’t quite as smooth as everyone thought he was. I spent some time on the campaign trail with Umunna last week. It’s rare that you get quite so many mums and children stopping for selfies with a member of the opposition, but this happened constantly with this MP. He does seem to have a star quality about him that makes primary school pupils shout out his name instantly, and mothers remember exactly what was on his leaflets. But this was in London: his big challenge is to persuade his party that he isn’t too smooth to appeal to voters in northern seats where Ukip is now in second place to his party.‘I think the Labour party can do it in five years, I want to lead that effort as part of a really big Labour team.’
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