Britain’s ‘answer to Obama’, Chuka Umunna: “I want to change the world”

"I'm not Barack Obama. I'm me."

Thanks to the power that is Martin Bright, those of us fortunate enough to be taking the politics specialism at City have so far had the opportunity to interview Anthony Browne, Boris Johnson’s controversial policy chief – and Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall and seasoned Labour rebel. However, as both were firmly off the record, the juicy revelations that emerged weren’t able to spill out on to this blog.

But Chuka Umunna, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Streatham had no such qualms when he came to our class on Friday to subject himself to the questions of what Brighty described as “quite feral journalistic beasts”.

Umunna began by laying out his grand political vision. It was so full of idealism, optimism and well-intentioned political fervour, that I think most of us weren’t sure how to react.

“For me politics is a vocation,” he said. “When I go and do Labour party things, it’s a little bit like going to church in a way. And the reason that I’m doing what I’m doing and working every hour that God sends (because as a parliamentary candidate you don’t get paid to do it – so in essence you’re doing two full time jobs at the same time) is that I simply want to change the world.”

“Which sounds like a really bold, grand way of putting it. But I do want to change the world – and the world starts at your doorstep.”

He continued:

I think if you’re not serious about changing the world and challenging the status quo, then what on earth is the point in doing it?
I think a lot of people lose sight of that. And for me it isn’t really a career, because I’ve got a fairly decent one at the moment which I could do and not have all the challenges and the difficulties you have if you’re entering public life.

Ben Martin was the first beast let out of the traps with the question: “Do you not think you’re being too idealistic?”

I don’t actually, funnily enough.
One of the reasons I’m so political is quite shaped in the environment I grew up in, in the 80s – Lambeth. It was communities like mine that really suffered. We had the downside of that kind of ultra neo-liberal model. My mum was shopping – when we were stuck in the middle of the Brixton riots.

So I’ve always kind of had that view. But hey, if you can’t be idealistic at my stage in a political journey then when the hell can you be? And I think one of the problems is that we have politicians who aren’t idealistic enough in a way – who aren’t ambitious enough of what can be achieved.

"Massively flattering"

What he said next surprised me. He has been hailed (not just by the title of this blog post) as Britain’s answer to Obama. Though wholly flattering, it can’t be an easy weight of expectation for someone not even in Parliament yet. So you’d think he’d shy away from the comparison. But before I even had the chance to put the point to Umunna, he got his Obama reference in first…

I mean look at what Barack Obama’s doing in the US. Sorry, it’s such a cliché to always go back to him, but A) it’s [the fact that] he even thought he could get in and B) you look at the economic stimulus over there– nobody would have believed that that would be politically feasible even just a year ago.

"Blame Brighty"

He laid most of the blame for the Obama comparison at the door of Brighty himself – probably for pieces like this one. But he did concede that as one of a tiny number of MPs or potential MPs of dual heritage, the comparison is certainly not surprising. He says he asks himself, “is there anybody I know in British politics who has a similar background. You know, why are they all [journalists] coming to me? And on the Labour side, I can’t think of anybody doing what I’m doing.” He also agreed with the thrust of a question I asked him: that the fact he is being hailed as Britain’s Obama – though “massively flattering” – is an indictment of the complete lack of diversity in the Commons.

(Though, I can tell you from meeting him – Umunna, not Obama – that he’s also got the looks and the charisma to justify the label.)

He finished with a plea to us humble journalism students:

Please change the lobby. If you want to do political journalism, it just needs to be shaken up. It’s so incestuous. It’s massively incestuous between politicians and journalists. And the second thing is, they all hunt in a pack. That’s not what you’re here for. You’re here to put different ideas out there, to report the facts. So don’t hunt in a pack!

P.S. I am aware that this is my third post in a row with more than a tenuous link to Barack Obama. It’s a complete accident.

P.P.S. I have been told that P.S. is far too archaic to be used in the world of blogging. I beg to differ.