Chuka Umunna has today shocked Labour and withdrawn from the race to succeed Ed Miliband because of the 'scrutiny' and 'attention' he faced in the 72 hours since launching his campaign. The 36-year-old MP for Streatham in south London - once described as 'Britain's Barack Obama' - said he could not cope with the 'pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate'.
He had been the favourite to take over the party after Labour's disastrous election defeat and launching his campaign on Tuesday had said he was the person to save the party and win in 2020.
But within three days he quit because he was uncomfortable with the increased level of scrutiny directed at him and members of his family, including his girlfriend Alice Sullivan.
Mr Umunna said today he had already failed to cope with the 'pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate'.
He was the bookies' favourite to replace Ed Miliband and today apologised to his supporters - but said the 'scrutiny and attention' on him and his family was too demanding for him.
He said: 'Shortly before the election campaign, I made the decision, in the event that Labour was defeated and a new Leader was to be elected, to stand for the leadership of the party if there was a desire in the party for me to do so.
'I dearly hoped Labour would win the election and it was a decision I would not have to implement. I also thought I understood the scrutiny and attention a leadership contest would bring.
'However since the night of our defeat last week I have been subject to the added level of pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate.
'I have not found it to be a comfortable experience. One can imagine what running for leader can be like, understand its demands and the attention but nothing compares to actually doing it and the impact on the rest of one's life.
'Consequently after further reflection I am withdrawing my candidacy.
'I apologise to all those who have kindly supported and encouraged me to do this and for disappointing them. I know this will come as I surprise to many but I had always wondered whether it was all too soon for me to launch this leadership bid - I fear it was.
'Most importantly, I continued to have very real concerns and worry about this bid's impact on those close to me'.
Sources close to Mr Umunna insisted that his withdrawal was not due to any negative story which he expects to appear in the media.
His team were confident that he would secure the 35 nominations from fellow MPs required to mount a leadership bid, but he decided that it was not the right time for him to press ahead.
Mr Umunna is not at this stage endorsing any other candidate for the leadership.
He said he wished to continue playing a full role in the shadow cabinet.
The unexpected withdrawal means there are now four declared candidates: shadow health secretary Andy Burnham; shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh; and shadow health minister Liz Kendall.
Under a timetable drawn up by the party earlier this week, nominations for leader close on June 15. Members and supporters who sign up by August 12 will be entitled to vote and the result will be announced on September 12.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said he was “interested in the leadership” of the party while on BBC Question Time but stopped short of declaring his candidacy.
Chuka Umunna has enjoyed a rapid rise since being elected to Parliament five years ago, aged just 31, but is now unlikely to fulfil predictions he would be Britain's first black prime minister. The sharp-suited former lawyer was promoted to shadow business secretary within two years of winning his Commons seat – and quickly became one of Labour’s most high-profile figures.Before entering Parliament, Mr Umunna studied law at Manchester University before moving into a job at the top City law firm Herbert Smith.Despite being in his 20s, he was already earning enough to buy a £230,000 flat in a converted art deco cinema on Streatham High Road – in the heart of his future constituency.Mr Umunna was born in London in 1978 – the son of a Nigerian businessman and a wealthy British mother whose father was a high court judge.His father, Bennett, moved to Britain to set up a successful import-export business – eventually earning enough to buy the family’s luxury holiday home in Ibiza.Mr Umunna’s father tragically died in a car accident in Nigeria when his son was just 14 years old.At the time Mr Umunna was attended the exclusive St Dunstan's College private school in south London.His privileged background and sharp looks have been used to paint him as an out-of-touch member of the metropolitan elite who doesn’t understand market town England – seen as the crucial battleground at the next election.Ths society journal Debrett's describes Mr Umunna as a protege of Peter Mandelson who is 'always impeccably groomed [and] exudes an air of effortless success'.This reputation was cemented after it emerged he had once used an exclusive social networking website for wealthy Londoners to ask how to avoid meeting ‘trash’ on nights out.Using the pseudonym ‘Harrison’ – the Labour MP’s middle name – Mr Umunna wrote: ‘Is it just me, or is there a serious lack of cool places to go in central London at the weekends? Most of the West End haunts seem to be full of trash and C-List wannabes.’He was faced ridiculed in the Commons by David Cameron over allegations that he changed his Wikipedia entry to compare himself to Barack Obama.
Smooth and urbane, Chuka Umunna is the articulate politician who had hoped to make the Labour Party electable again after the humiliations suffered under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband.
But many party workers were worried that this 36-year-old, 6ft-tall, well-dressed former lawyer may be just a little too smooth.
The grandson of a British prosecutor at the Nuremberg war trials, Chuka was educated at a private boys’ school, and was a chorister at Southwark Cathedral. His voice can be heard singing the theme tune to the Rowan Atkinson comedy Mr Bean.
Mr Umunna thinks nothing of spending £1,200 on bespoke suits from Alexandra Wood, an exclusive Savile Row tailor.
He was forced to apologise two years ago after it was revealed that he had once commented on a website that London’s nightclubs were ‘full of trash and C-list wannabes’.
And he lives in a £1million home reportedly funded from a family trust located in the tax haven of Jersey – despite his party’s stance against tax avoidance.
Simon Danczuk, the outspoken Labour MP for Rochdale, had questioned Mr Umunna’s suitability for the role.
‘Is he the sort of person who could win seats in Bolton West, in Bury North, in Glasgow?’ he said on LBC Radio. ‘Labour does need to move away from this metropolitan comfort zone. The party has been too London-centric.’
Two years ago Mr Umunna attracted ridicule when it emerged his Wikipedia entry had been altered to refer to him as ‘the UK’s Barack Obama’. The change had come from a computer registered at his old law firm.
Born in 1978, Mr Umunna grew up in Streatham, South London – exactly the same area he has represented in the Commons for the past five years.
His father Bennett arrived in Britain from Nigeria in the 1960s with virtually nothing. He began a successful import-export business and later married solicitor Patricia Milmo, the daughter of Sir Helenus Milmo, the Nuremberg prosecutor.
In 1992, Bennett died in a mysterious crash soon after standing to be governor of a Nigerian state on an anti-bribery platform. After his comfortable childhood, Mr Umunna studied law in Manchester, where he even tried his hands as a club DJ. He has spent summers at his mother’s £1million Ibiza villa, which is called the White House.
After several years as a corporate employment lawyer at Herbert Smith in the City of London, he saw his chance and stood as an MP when the Streatham seat came up.
Before entering parliament in 2010 he espoused the Left-wing ideals of the Compass pressure group.
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