Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna is a political activist and commentator, and an employment lawyer.
He is a leading member of the centre left pressure group, Compass, on whose management committee he sits, and often speaks on its behalf in the media. He is also the organisation’s legal advisor.
He is the founder and editor of the influential online political magazine, TMP, primarily aimed at left leaning British Black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Contributors to the site include Baroness Prosser, David Lammy MP, Keith Vaz MP and Jon Cruddas MP (Umunna was a campaign aide to Cruddas during his Labour Party Deputy Leadership campaign). Umunna is a member of the executive committee of the Black Socialist Society [1], an affiliate of the Labour Party.
Umunna has written for the Financial Times[2], Tribune, the Voice, the Guardian, the New Statesman[3] and is one of the Guardian’s Comment Is Free website’s contributors.
He started his legal career as a solicitor at the international law firm, Herbert Smith, in the City of London where Umunna mostly acted for large employers. In 2006 he moved to the Central London law firm, Rochman Landau, where he mainly acts for employees. As a an employment lawyer, Umunna often speaks and writes on employment issues.[4]
Further to his work as a trustee of two youth charities, the 409 Project in Lambeth, South London, and the Anthony Bourne Foundation, Umunna was quoted[5] in the wake of the numerous killings of teenagers in Britain linked to gangs and violence in urban Britain. His comments[6] that the problems of young people living in the inner cities was linked to the wealth divide and increasing consumerism were widely reported.
He received plaudits in October 2007 after appearing on BBC One’s Question Time programme for challenging the former editor of The Sun newspaper, Kelvin MacKenzie, when MacKenzie made controversial comments[7] on Scottish people during the edition on which the two appeared on 11 October 2007.
References
- ^ Holloway, Lester, "Leading our own struggle", 21 June 2006
- ^ Umunna, Chuka, “Ask the expert: Diversity in the City”, Financial Times, 11 September 2006
- ^ Umunna, Chuka, “The duty to inspire”, New Statesman, 30 August 2007
- ^ “Inequality costs £1m per hour”, Personnel Today, 20 September 2007
- ^ Womack, Sarah, “Black boys need role models not rappers”, The Telegraph, 14 August 2007
- ^ Umunna, Chuka, “In our inner cities, gangs are the new extended families”, The Guardian, 9 August 2007
- ^ Akbar, Arifa, “Former 'Sun' editor MacKenzie outrages Scots”, 27 October 2007