Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Chuka Umunna

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British politician Chuka Umunna.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Chuka Umunna

Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He left Labour in February 2019, when he resigned to form The Independent Group, later Change UK, along with six other MPs. Later in 2019, he left Change UK and, after a short time as an independent MP, joined the Liberal Democrats. In the 2019 general election, he was unsuccessful in being re-elected as an MP and did not return to the House of Commons.

We will not try to out-Ukip Ukip. Labour is not going to offer false solutions, such as leaving Europe.
Shopping in the future can become an experience where conventional retailers can complement the success of online retailing. Government needs to work in partnership with the sector to help make this a reality.
People may not know what tier of government has competence over which policy area but they do draw a distinction between the local and the national. — © Chuka Umunna
People may not know what tier of government has competence over which policy area but they do draw a distinction between the local and the national.
I've never bought the argument that people are apathetic about politics.
Requiring fund managers to disclose how they vote would increase accountability and mean that pensioners and ordinary investors would more easily be able to see how those acting on their behalf vote on all issues, including remuneration.
We want to see more sources of alternative finance, from innovations in factoring such as MarketInvoice or in peer-to-peer lending such as Funding Circle which Labour local authorities are now using to support and invest in local businesses.
Political parties - which too often operate like closed circles - must open up.
Although I had a private education at secondary level, I went to a local primary school where I mixed with kids of all backgrounds.
I want to make sure that all GPs, not only in my constituency but across the U.K., help to raise awareness of the increased risk of prostate cancer in black men and have the knowledge to initiate these important conversations with the community.
Daily we see how demographic change and uncertainty about what it means to be British is exploited by those with their own agenda; those who employ divisive rhetoric, engage in scapegoating and do nothing to tackle root causes of the insecurities people face.
We must stop looking to the past and focus on ensuring everyone has a stake in the future.
Labour is the party of internationalism and openness.
In an age of globalisation, investment and good jobs increasingly flow to cities and regions with distinctive strengths and specialisms. These cannot be built up from Whitehall. They require local expertise, knowledge and dedication.
Back in the 1980s parts of our country were devastated by de-industrialisation. This wave of globalisation and the first fruits of technological innovation destroyed industrial jobs or exported them to low-wage economies. The loss of work had a devastating impact.
Believe it or not, we all share the same values in the Labour party, but there will always be differences of opinion on policy - that is in the nature of the broad-church political parties we have under our flawed first-past-the-post electoral system.
While we are clear that it is right that those who work hard, generate wealth and create jobs for our country are rewarded, where failure is rewarded or people award themselves huge pay rises that bear no relation to performance or what their companies can bear, trust is severely undermined.
We are all proud to be British. But we also feel more local and regional allegiances. — © Chuka Umunna
We are all proud to be British. But we also feel more local and regional allegiances.
Our differences needn't divide us, but unity takes work.
Having common European standards has not only boosted prosperity here and across the continent, it is undoubtedly the best way of managing the challenges posed by globalisation.
My father was a black, working-class man who arrived here with no money in his pocket from Nigeria; my mum came from more of a middle-class background, whose father had prosecuted the Nazis at Nuremberg.
Though I am probably guilty of indulging in excessive tribalism myself at times, I try to put partisanship to one side where appropriate.
I spent many hours slaving away, day and night, bleary eyed, on multi-million pound takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, and the rest. It could sound glamorous (especially when it involved overseas travel) but often it wasn't partly because, as a lawyer, you were not the one calling the shots.
Leaving Labour was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do and it was not a cause of jubilation or happiness. I did it with great sadness, but you have to put the country first.
More and more department stores are acting as the shop window for a range of retailers now, using space more efficiently to recreate the feel of the local market, creating new market opportunities for the small and the niche.
This country needs nothing less than wholesale federalisation. The reasons are threefold: economic, democratic and cultural.
Brexit is not going to solve the causes of Brexit.
We are a great country with huge potential.
Excessive pay and rewards for failure are bad for shareholders, the economy and society.
We have a really rich and diverse heritage in my family - but I sometimes felt it was a bit of a chain round my neck in the Labour party if truth be told.
Whether it is clamping down on tax avoidance by multinationals, setting ambitious targets for tackling climate change, or reforming the posted workers' directive to better protect migrant workers, European countries are working together to get things done.
One way to promote shareholder engagement and activism is through greater accountability and transparency.
Getting from A to B can be crucial for small-business owners, self-employed people and freelancers too, who often rely on trains and buses to get around, conduct business and meet clients.
Sometimes it requires national impetus to deliver real change.
We are determined to work in partnership with business not only towards our goal of full employment, but for more secure jobs for working people so they can get on and meet their aspirations.
With Tory privatisations in the past we've seen how service users can end up losing out and getting a raw deal.
Being outside the customs union would mean masses of new red tape, a desperate scramble for trade agreements and the re-emergence of a border in Ireland.
Ukip has policies including cutting taxes for the wealthy and putting them up for everyone else, charging people to see their GP, or taking away maternity rights.
Screaming 'you're wrong' at the electorate is not a good strategy for a party seeking to win back its trust. — © Chuka Umunna
Screaming 'you're wrong' at the electorate is not a good strategy for a party seeking to win back its trust.
A prerequisite to the inclusive prosperity that will increase equality and reduce poverty is growth. This requires an innovative economy in which productive businesses, the state and citizens work together to create wealth and ensure that globalisation works for many more people.
To be clear, aiming to reduce the national debt in the long term and running small surpluses when the economy is operating close to full capacity is what I mean when I talk about seeking to 'balance the books' - a sensible approach.
We must never forget the value of work because without it people are denied a sense of dignity and of community.
I worked in the Square Mile for three and half years at an international City law firm.
When you lose work, the meaning and purpose of life are taken away from you, and isolation can set in.
Ignoring prostate cancer won't beat it.
There is a danger in believing your own hype.
Banks provide payment systems, core deposit and lending facilities that enable us to manage our day to day affairs.
Some people welcome the flexibility of a zero-hours contract. But their growth is symptomatic of a wider issue - increasing job insecurity and falling living standards in David Cameron's Britain.
Some will say it isn't the government's job to manage who people meet and interact with, but there is clearly a lot it can and should do. It should offer communities much more support to manage demographic and cultural change, including investment in public services and additional housing stock in our migration hotspots.
You cannot duck the difficult issues in the middle of an election campaign.
I have quite a different background from a lot of people in the Labour party - I'm of mixed heritage.
The argument in Labour around full membership of the single market is about whether it can be squared with delivering the desire of many of our voters to gain greater control over immigration. This is a proper concern - Labour must stand for those who voted leave every bit as much as we represent those who voted remain.
When a Conservative government is presiding over unfair cuts to tax credits, chaos in the NHS and an unnecessary and ideological attack on trade union rights, it is natural that many in the Labour party should be sceptical of Tory talk on devolution - sceptical, even of government deals with Labour-led local authorities.
Why not let the main parties wither? Because I know of no better vehicle than the political party to enable those with common values to come together and reach a position on issues that can then be offered up as a choice of programmes for voters.
We need to see many more people starting businesses and becoming their own boss, but the squeezed middle exists as much within this group as in the population at large as rising costs are hitting small businesses - who after all are consumers too.
Leaving the single market, making communities poorer and more alienated, is not the way to deal with public concerns about immigration, most of which comes from outside the E.U.
As the world has changed through globalisation and technology, it has left many feeling left behind. — © Chuka Umunna
As the world has changed through globalisation and technology, it has left many feeling left behind.
If truth be told, certainly culturally, I never felt totally comfortable in the Labour party, because I've never really been a massively tribal politician.
Work is the way we contribute to society, part of a reciprocal social contract - the giving of our effort and our taking when in need - that holds our society together. We work, we build our society, and we share in its prosperity.
There are retailers successfully combining conventional and online retail, like Argos or John Lewis.
Green growth is one vehicle through which technology, globalisation and environmental challenges can be turned from obstacles to solutions for problems related to growth, jobs and competitiveness.
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