Machine politics has had its day, Chuka Umunna tells Robert Philpot and Adam Harrison

Labour must ‘kick machine politics out of the party’, shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna has argued.

In a passionate defence of Ed Miliband’s party reform plans, the shadow business secretary calls for an end to ‘the politics of stitch and fix’ and argues that the Labour leader’s proposals strengthen the party’s relationship with individual trade union members.

Interviewed by Progress, Umunna also answers criticism of Labour’s performance over the summer months by warning that the party has faced ‘a more aggressively hostile media than we have had at any time since 1992’ and that the Conservatives are preparing to mount ‘the most nasty, vile and personal general election campaign we have seen in a generation’.

As Labour prepares to debate the interim report of the Collins review into the implications of Miliband’s plan that members of affiliated trade unions should no longer be automatically signed up as levy-payers, Umunna raises the stakes by warning that all parties have got ‘a massive challenge to make what we do more relevant to people and to engage people more’. ‘Unless we change the way in which our party operates so that we adapt and adjust to those circumstances then it will compromise our ability not only to win support but to govern effectively,’ he argues. ‘I think the politics of stitch and fix is not the way in which we are going to be able to engage people more. In fact, precisely the opposite.’

Countering those unions and members of the hard left who oppose Miliband and argue that the right of the party used its control to ensure the selection of favoured candidates under Tony Blair’s leadership, Umunna says: ‘Frankly I don’t care what part of the party is engaging in machine politics and stitch and fix, and I don’t particularly care when they did it, but what I do know is that we’ve got to kick it out of our party and that’s why I have been such a strong proponent of what Ed is seeking to do.’

Umunna makes plain his unease about the manner in which some of this spring’s selection processes for next year’s European parliamentary elections were conducted, attacking in particular the manner in which Anne Fairweather, a candidate in London in the 2009 poll, was barred from the longlist by the shortlisting panel. ‘I was very angry about the decision to exclude Anne … and I made that known to the London regional board. She’s been a fantastic activist in my area in my constituency, is Labour through and through … and it simply confirms to me how right Ed is to seek to transform and reform our party so that it is fit for the 21st century,’ he says.

Umunna, a close ally of the Labour leader who entered parliament in 2010 at the age of 31, urges Labour to recognise that its style of politics is increasingly out of step with young people. ‘We’ve got a massive challenge because … if you look at the younger generation – there were almost 10 million people who voted at the last general election for the first time – and a lot of these people are growing up in a different society: a more individualistic society, a more bespoke society,’ he argues. Umunna warns that the way political parties operate is ‘rubbing up against cultural norms and cultural developments’, making Miliband’s reforms ‘absolutely crucial’.

In a direct appeal to opponents of Miliband’s plans, the shadow business secretary argues:  ‘For those who have said that this poses a challenge to our historic link with the trade union movement, I don’t think it does at all. I think the different affiliated organisations of our party, be they the trade unions or the socialist societies, have absolutely nothing to fear from this whatsoever. In many ways it strengthens our connection and our relationship with individual trade union members.’

Umunna also responds to criticisms of Miliband’s desire to hold a primary to choose Labour’s candidate for the London mayoralty and for parliamentary selections where constituency parties have a small membership. Citing the experience of the French Socialist party’s use of a primary in 2011 to select François Hollande as its presidential candidate, the shadow business secretary says: ‘What we saw through that process was many, many more people being engaged in the selection of their candidate which enabled the party to build a bigger army of supporters to mobilise the public in general at the time of the presidential election and, secondly, in order to participate I think you had to pay a euro to do so and of course that made a huge amount for the party which … added to the election effort, so you’ve got the resource and you’ve got stronger engagement and a bigger pool of support to mobilise the population in general. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do that.’

Dismissing the suggestion that primaries devalue party members by reducing their role in selecting candidates, Umunna argues that the important role for the membership is ‘to ensure that the shortlist of candidates have values and principles which are in tune with and reflect what the Labour party is about’. While the Streatham MP says he would oppose primaries which have ‘no special role for members’, he suggests that ‘it’s perfectly possible to have a process where you can ensure there is a strong role for members so it doesn’t have to be an either-or.’ The shadow business secretary also urges Labour to look to the experience of the Tories who used primaries in a number of places to pick candidates before the last general election. ‘If you look at the parliamentary party, some of the most independent, free-thinking voices you have in the Conservative party were those who were chosen by way of primary,’ he says. ‘I think actually that’s a very appealing thing to the public.’

Umunna’s support for primaries reflects his belief that the public are becoming increasingly alienated by an ‘ultra-tribal way of conducting politics’. ‘It just switches people off,’ he suggests. Umunna’s view is shaping the way the shadow business team is engaging with businesspeople. The Next Generation entrepreneurs’ network which he has established does not simply reach out to Labour supporters. ‘I’ve been very clear [that] I don’t care whether you’re a member or a supporter of another party: can you get involved?’ he says. Next Generation events, Umunna notes, have turned into a ‘forum to network and do business with each other… That shows we can do things differently and also be relevant to people.’

Umunna is also attempting to change the way in which business support for parties is traditionally measured. He describes the notion of inviting FTSE 100 chief executives to dinner with the party leader and then attempting to persuade them to sign a letter to the Times or Financial Times backing a position as ‘old school’ and ‘out of date’. It ignores, he believes, the overwhelming majority of businesses which are not FTSE 100 companies. He wants to see Labour ‘in tune with and engaged with the majority of businesses in this country which aren’t big massive businesses’.

Umunna also makes clear that Labour intends to contest the traditionally Conservative small business vote at the next election. ‘The Tories talk about these people as if they’re one big, generic group, a block,’ he argues. Their talk of ‘SMEs’ – small and medium enterprises – ignores the diversity of such businesses, the shadow business secretary believes. He is particularly interested in what he calls the ‘lifestylers’, the growing number of self-employed people who have ‘chosen to set up their own business and become self-employed because they want to be able to organise their lives around other interests, maybe a hobby, or they have caring responsibilities or frankly because the jobs market has been so challenging’. Using figures that show that, while employment overall has increased by only 0.7 per cent since 2008, the number of people who are self-employed has grown by almost 10 per cent, the shadow business secretary describes ‘lifestylers’ as ‘a key group demographically which we are targeting at the next general election’.

While short in terms of time, Umunna’s political journey has covered a lot of ground. Once a leading light in the leftwing Compass pressure group, the shadow business secretary told Total Politics magazine last year that he had become ‘more centrist’ since entering parliament. So how does Umunna think he has changed? ‘My issue with New Labour wasn’t the approach, he responds. ‘I think the New Labour approach is absolutely fundamentally the correct approach, marrying together social justice with economic competence and strategically prosecuting the argument. I think where I had issues was in respect of the approach of some to the market and the way in which government interacts with the market.’ That distinction, he believes, is less important now: he cites the manner in which former business secretary Peter Mandelson adopted a much more interventionist approach during his second stint at the department during Labour’s final 18 months in office.

Instead, Umunna argues that what has changed him is ‘the burden of responsibility … the need to think about how you’re practically going to shift a big department of state and also working with other departments to actually tangibly change this country’. While careful to suggest he presumes nothing about either Labour’s chances at the next election or receiving a call from Miliband offering him a cabinet post, he concludes: ‘I think if you’re not thinking that way then … you’re probably not doing the right thing because what we’re seeking to present ourselves as to the electorate is a government-in-waiting and they need to have the confidence that we can go in there and run things.’

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Photo: Jocelin Bec