To be a bit disappointed in Chuka Umunna

[Viviennemary]

I thought Chuka Umunna would be a good candidate for Labour to re-invent itself and appeal to more voters. I thought he spoke well and sincerely and was a lot better than Ed Miliband. But I read today that he lives in a £1m house reportedly funded by a Family Trust located in the tax haven of Jersey. How can ordinary folk take him and his party seriously going on about tax avoidance.

He's got big Skelton s hiding.

Shame, he looked like a disaster I'd of enjoyed seeing him run labour. Very ambitious but not very smart or knowledgeable.

Well if it's dirt the press will print it anyway.

Mind you if he's so bloody daft he is suprised the press are crawling all over him and his life he's a bit of a twat.

It seems there's going to be a story on him in Sunday's papers.

I don't blame the guy at all - who the hell would want to live with that level of scrutiny?

The rumor is a Sunday paper have a big story. Wonder if they will print it or he will silence them. Being wealthy helps him.

It sounds as if he was a bit wild in his 20s - he was described as being a jetrosexual, part of a group who had sex in private jets in 2013 in DM. He also had a £20,000 donation from the chairman of Gala Coral. He was also ranked 611/653 for responding to constituents with only 21% of correspondents receiving an answer but this was better than the year before. This is from a bit of nosy googling.

According to the New Statesman his girlfriends parents and her 102 yr old grandmother were being pursued by the media .... He's gone up in my estimation if he has put other people before his own political ambition.

What do you mean, he had a donation from the chairman of Gala Coral. Do you mean it was for the Labour Party or for himself?

This is from the BBC website

A spokesman for Mr Umunna said: "This donation was made by an individual Labour Party supporter in a personal capacity, and was accepted in accordance with the rules and properly declared."

Betting Boss Donation (BBC)

He doesn't sound wild. He sounds like a pretentious nob.

Put him in a blue tie and this guy would be vilified, I don't agree with the gutter press allegedly door stepping his gran, but if the hounds smell blood etc...

I was listening to Today program just before 6 PM.
Forward to 5:54:40

they were replaying comments made by Bill Grimsy who was advising Labour what to do about High Street, himself used to run Iceland and Wicks. He comments about Miliband and also Ummuna.

He rightly points out at really simple truth - Chuka was telling Andrew marr "We didn't hit the business community". Chuka himself was and is business secretary! He should resign

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-32726516
17:47
Bill Grimsey a former business adviser to Labour during the last parliament has cast doubt on Chuka Umunna's leadership qualities in an interview with BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

Mr Grimsey said he been tasked by the party to find out what businesses thought of Labour and he offered to speak to the CEOs of FTSE 100 companies.

Mr Grimsey told the BBC: "His [Chuka Umunna's] reply was 'no we don't need to do that, I know all these people very very well, I'm on good terms with them, I know exactly what they think'.

"And I said to Chuka - 'that's not real, grow up, they're telling you what you want to hear'. He wasn't interested - and I call that naive."

He resigns before the story comes out? What's he, an investor in the newspaper?

I think he's a good enough constituency MP - he has intervened in issues affecting friends of mine - the debacle of the rising flat prices after people had bought them on the Tesco site, for example. he rescued a local school when the Tories cut it's planned re-build when they axed BSF, and he got it's grant re-instated. I have met him at numerous community events and school fairs.

His mother was a social worker and his father killed - if the money or house was left in trust the house will have tripled on value over the last 10 years, even in Streatham.

Anyway, lets see what happens. I think that a young man who used to be a DJ lamenting that he can't find the right club isn't necessarily a view into his deeper morals - and actually shows a naivety in media training which flies n the face of accusations of him being a slick operator. LOL at Jetrosexual. Where do they get this stuff?

I don't know whether he would be my first choice or not...but I don't like gossip and personal dirt raking about anyone - especially if it IS true that he is protecting his grandmother and girlfriend.

*His mother was a social worker and his father killed - if the money or house was left in trust the house will have tripled on value over the last 10 years, even in Streatham.
*

I'm sorry in advance of how heartless this may come across, if we are going to provide X factor style backdrops and make allowances for some politicians, then we should allow it for all, we have a problem with the apparent current crop of PPE graduates that monopolise the polical class, and if we can roundly denounce the loosely termed 'banker' as out of touch then Chuka should be held at the same standards.

We as an electorate either accept, polished, PR astute politicians and never attack anything around upbringing or previous comments, or we accept that part of growing up means you occasionally do and say stupid shit.

I will reiterate that if he was wearing a blue tie(which he practically is with his neo-liberalism, pro austerity slant) he would de vilified by the likes of many on here.

Jersey is not a tax haven. It's a low tax jurisdiction

JustAnotherLurker - actually I don't villfy tories, or kippers or greens for things heir parents did or ordinary S london houses they live in...or buy into much press distortion about anyone's private lives.

I am interested in what they deliver for the people of this country.,

Chuka may or may not have delivered as a party leader - for me he is too close to the Blairite centre of the party. But raking up minor gossip from 8 years ago and sucking on the DM of spin on things doesn't do any of us any favours.

"His mother was a social worker and his father killed "

No, his mother is and was a lawyer and daughter a judge, while his father was a wealthy Nigerian developer