Streatham Pulse Meets Chuka Umunna

Streatham’s recently elected MP, Chuka Umunna, was actively campaigning for his job long before the general election campaign was announced. In that time he’s garnered a significant public profile in the national media, where he’s frequently talked of as a future leader of The Labour party and a contender for Britain’s first black Prime Minister. He’s also a fan of Streatham Pulse and recently found time to talk to us over a coffee and a carrot cake in Perfect Blend. Here’s what he had to say.

Why did you go in to Politics?

I’ve always been fascinated by what makes the world go round and that’s partly through growing up in Streatham in the 1980’s. It was hard, particularly in the northern part of the constituency, where people were rioting due to the situation they found themselves in. Also I’m part Nigerian and have been to Africa and seen the extreme poverty there and those two things brought about political consciousness in me.

Were your parents politically active?

My father stood for the governorship of the state from which my family are from in Nigeria, shortly before he died in the early 1990’s, so I think the political gene probably is down to him.  My mother has never been politically active but has always had a strong social conscience. She was a probation officer, so I think both of my parents had an effect on me in that way, but it wasn’t like I was brain washed and my family certainly didn’t have a history in the Labour Party. I went to the Labour party, it didn’t come to me.

What do you think are the biggest problems facing Streatham now?

One of the things that I was most struck by, going around the constituency over the last two years was the state of some of the housing that people are living in. It really was quite shocking what I saw and that for me is a complete priority. It’s not just an issue of investing capitol in the infrastructure of peoples homes; it’s about making sure there’s decent housing management because people are not getting treated the way they should be, in social housing in particular.

Another is the school places issue. We’ve gone some way to addressing Primary school places but we’ve obviously got a long way to go. We are transforming the currently empty school at Dingly Lane, just off Woodfield Avenue in to Henry Cavendish 2. Hopefully that’s going to relieve some of the pressure but in the northern part of the constituency, in the Brixton Hill area, we really need another Primary school too. And of course these issues we’re having now are going to come up with secondary schools too.

As an opposition MP, at a time when there’s going to be huge budget cuts, what do you think you’re chances are of being able to affect change?

I’ve just tabled two parliamentary questions to the housing minister. The first was to ask if they are going to carry on with the decent homes program and the second was to ask whether, if Lambeth Living, who run Lambeth boroughs social housing stock, achieve two stars in their next audit commission, they’ll receive the 230 million pounds that was allocated to them by the last government. One of the issues that the Liberal Democrats accused us of during their election campaign, locally, was our failure to solve the housing situation. So I’m hoping they will follow through by ensuring that the capitol comes through. I can keep putting pressure on to ensure that we get that money and I’m not going to let up on that. It’s the same with the money that’s coming through from central government for our education because, although we have to deal with the debt, part of the way you do that is through growth, and we won’t see growth unless we have a highly skilled economy and highly skilled people coming through in the future. We need a good education system to do that.

The other thing is our transport connections here in Streatham. Thameslink is under threat so I’ll be tabling questions to find out what the hell is going to happen with that. Also I’ll be taking forward the campaign to bring the tube to Streatham. At the moment we’re waiting to find out the results of the feasibility study, which is being carried out by The Mayor of London, in to extending the Bakerloo line. That’s due to come through soon so we’re waiting to see what happens with that. I’ve written to him arguing that we should be at the top of the list for any extension.

Will you be playing any part in helping to bring private investment in to the area?

Absolutely. I see one of my roles as a member of parliament as being an advocate and an ambassador for the community and part of that has got be in arguing for private investment. Although, it’s got to be done in a way that’s suitable for the community and that residents are happy with. But certainly beginning the dialogue and arguing that they should put money in to the area, is something I can do.

How exactly will you do that?

A lot of the people who have units here on the High Road are small independent businesses. They find it very difficult in this economic climate to deal with their landlords. They’re not getting the same takings as they would do in more benign economic circumstances and their landlords, who are often not present, some are abroad, are squeezing a lot of them out. One thing that I’ve argued for is to have a Streatham High Road business association of sorts, where they can all come together and negotiate with these landlords. The business breakfasts that are going on at the moment are brilliant but I’d like to do my bit by having a large gathering at the House of Commons and bringing in other people who are linked and seeing where we can go from there. I’m trying to do it in such a way that I don’t reinvent the wheel because I’m aware that the kind of meetings that go on in Streatham already are great, but I’m interested from a policy making point of view in finding out whether there’s something we need to do from a legislative angle to help people here.

Will you be lobbying TFL to follow through with the planned improvements to the High Road?

That is actually one of the things which is in my in tray. I’ll be working with Valerie Shawcross, The London Assembly member, on this. She’s been appointed the new chair of the transport committee, which is great news. So working with Valerie I’m going to get an answer on that and find out what the time frame is. I really like the section, which has been completed by the cinema. Not everybody does and there have been some people saying there will be more accidents with people crossing the road in the wrong places, so we’ll see. But wouldn’t it be lovely if it came all the way up the high road?

During the campaign I got a call from the powers that be saying they wanted to come along and launch the parties diversity manifesto in Streatham. We did a walk about down the High Road and held a rally outside the Odeon. There was this huge national media circus. David Miliband was here, Harriet Harman, Diana Abbott, and loads of local people all going down the High Road, going in to barber shops. People were absolutely gob smacked by this thing that just arrived, with TV cameras all over the place. That was Streatham High Road at its best. It was lively, people were stopping, saying hello, chatting, joining the throng. It was quite something. You can see the video on my website. It was quite an amazing day. I’ve never seen anything like it.

In contrast to Streatham’s previous MP, Keith Hill, you’ve always been quite outspoken about things. You don’t tow the party line. Now that you’ve been elected, will that continue?

Yes. I wrote a piece for the Guardian recently, in which I didn’t pull my punches, but in a way I suppose I’m going in to parliament at quite a different time for my party. I would never wish a Conservative government on my constituents because I know what happened the last time, but one of the advantages of going in to opposition is that you are a lot more free to say what you think. Also the parliamentary Labour party is a lot more democratic, so not only are all these people who want to become leader courting you, but also the shadow cabinet in the Labour party is elected by back benchers. It is a lot more collegiate and a lot more democratic, so if I’m outspoken about things people will actually engage with you more than if you go in as a government back bencher, where you basically tow the line, do as you’re told and maybe you’ll get a job in a few years. I always say that it’s a balancing thing. If I oppose everything and was always slagging of my party, which I don’t do – I’m in the party because I agree with the overwhelming majority of policies – but if I did, then I wouldn’t have any influence. But if there’s a particular subject area where you think your party’s got it wrong and you take a different line on that particular issue, you can have so much more influence. Also you don’t always have to wash your dirty linen in public. You can often resolve a lot of things, in the interests of your community, without having a shouting match in the national media so I think it’s about judgement and balance. If something is in our manifesto I don’t think I’d be justified in voting against it because that’s the contract under which I stood. But if your party does something, which isn’t in your manifesto, like you know, an illegal invasion of a foreign country then I think it’s important that you vote with your conscience.

As well as the war in Iraq, I believe another thing you disagreed on was the Digital Economy Bill?

Yeah, I though the bit, which gave powers to take action against people accused of infringing copyright was so draconian and shouldn’t have been rushed through in the way that it was. I think we got that wrong. There were other aspects of the bill, which were quite sensible but that in particular I had problems with.

Why are you supporting Ed Miliband for leader of the Labour Party?

Because, I think there’s a lot we can be proud of, not least in the constituency, with all our children’s centres, new health centres, record school results, safer neighbourhood teams and all the rest, but the fact is, we did lose the general election in one of our worst defeats in history. One reason for that was that we felt that we needed to refresh ourselves in government but when we had the opportunity to do so, in 2007, we were far too cautious in tackling the big problems, the environmental, economic and democratic crises, which came about. We became out of touch. We became the establishment. The Labour party is not the establishment. Traditionally, we’ve always struggled and challenged the status quo but we’d kind of become a bit establishment, which was exemplified with ‘bigot-gate’. And there are still some outstanding issues, which we failed to get a grip on. Immigration is an issue, which people are massively concerned with but if you look at the reasons why people are massively concerned with immigration, it’s actually a smokescreen for our failures in dealing with the housing problem in the country

We also took an approach where we completely bought in to this globalised capitol market model where people are thrown in to the ocean of globalisation and if they’re drowning then maybe we throw them a lifeline; instead of trying to bend the system we have at the moment so that it serves more of the people more of the time.

I’d say that on those issues, which I’ve just identified, Ed gets it. I think he has some of the answers as well and more importantly where he doesn’t have the answers he’s prepared to listen. If you talk to any of the people in the green movement, they think he’s absolutely fantastic. In spite of the fact that he was a cabinet minister party to the decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow and despite the fact that Copenhagen didn’t deliver what we wanted, they really love him, because he listened, he consulted them and he gave them more than they hoped for. I think the way he conducts himself and the way he does his politics – less top down, more listening to groups from the bottom up and not just railroading through a my way or no way kind of attitude – that appeals to me. Also he’s a chum. He came down here and did a Q&A with the community and he was absolutely superb. I’ve bumped in to people who said that was fantastic. They really enjoyed it and they felt like they were being listened to. It was great for all the schools to come along. I mean the teenagers were more on top of the detail than anyone.

What are your ambitions in politics?

I’d be lying if I were to say that I’m not ambitious to get on and to get my hands on the leads of power because that’s the best way to deliver for your community. But ultimately I’m ambitious in my politics. I think that we still are massively unequal in many respects and I think there’s a lot of emphasis on material consumption and not quite so much on the other things, which make us happy. That’s what makes me a social democrat because I believe that were mutually dependable beings and I think you can only really be happy and succeed as an individual in the context of a strong community that nurtures you. Anything that I can get my hands on to make that happen, I’ll grab it.

Since giving this interview, Chuka has found time to address the left wing organisation Compass. In the videos below he clearly sets out his vision for The Labour Party.

Chuka is keen to support Streatham Pulse and plans to make regular contributions. He’ll be keeping us updated with blog posts and will also, in a break from politics, be giving us an insight in to the music he’s been listening to each fortnight, in our new feature ‘Sounds of Streatham’. The first installment will be online this Friday.

Streatham Pulse is an independent and politically neutral website. We’d like to openly invite readers as well as members of the other local political parties to comment on this interview and tell us what you think of Chuka as our new MP.

Tags: Chuka Umunna, Labour Party, MP, Streatham
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