My frustrations with Chuka

Chuka Umunna (Image: TUC)

This EU-exit is giving me unwanted flashbacks of my time at University. Those who attended higher education in the digital era I'm sure can resonate. Picture a big deadline looming and you are convinced the essay you're about to submit will guarantee you a First. You go online, logon to a student portal like Blackboard, which is never the easiest to navigate, and the inevitable happens - the web page freezes. Day after day, hour after hour, that essay is simply not being submitted due to annoying technical issues. The portal laughs at your face. And that paper doesn't get through until you reluctantly accept that inevitable, and somewhat embarrassing, deadline extension. When faced with that scenario, you're probably thinking the Gods are saying something about your essay which is in fact worth a 2:2.

Theresa May is facing a similar predicament. Here is the Prime Minister with this deal that she's absolutely delighted by. Ready for submission, she goes to MPs for their approval and guess what, they will do anything to ensure her First-quality essay (in her eyes) appears like one doomed for failure, even if she requests for a re-mark over-and-over again.

I do feel for the Prime Minister. Theresa May had gotten a deal, initially in decent time, agreed with leaders from 27 European Union member nations. She thought that EU-luvvies MPs, passionate Remain supporters, be satisfied with it because Brussels approve of what is being offered. She also thought that the hard-line Eurosceptics would be happy with it too, because the UK would no longer be a member of the EU, just as the referendum declared back in June 2016. Little did she realise that the vast majority of MPs will have an Andy Pipkin (of UK hit sitcom Little Britain) attitude towards her deal by simply saying "I don't like it" before glancing fully on the offer. May's frustrations must be reaching fever pitch right now.

As I write this, May has to ensure Parliament backs the current EU deal in a jiffy, otherwise Britain could leave the EU potentially without any trade agreement on Friday 12th April - two weeks later than originally planned. If the majority of MPs do give in, UK will leave on Wednesday 22nd May with the deal implemented. As a spectator, it has been a real challenge to follow the ongoing drama, but all we can do is sit and wait, as it is down to the 650 democratically elected MPs to seal the future of millions - not just Britons, but fellow Europeans also.

It is nearly three years since that infamous EU referendum, and throughout the process we have seen more finger-pointing than I've seen seagulls in Barry Island. And that is where I feel the problem lies. Both ardent Remain and Leave campaigners are so consumed in blaming each other for this apparent mess, we are in this mess because of the infighting. As a Remain voter myself, I find this exhausting and I can see why so many people are disengaged as a result.

Theresa May (Image: Daily Mirror)

Ultimately, I am frustrated with the Remain-backing MPs who I feel aren't looking at the bigger picture. I truly believe we should respect the government's direction on this EU-exit process and that this deal Theresa May has put to the table is a decent solution for Remain campaigners to sign up to. Why would 27 EU nations accept it otherwise? They wouldn't agree to something that would damage their or the British economies. In this instance, they work hand-in-hand. Due to May's insistence, the deal presented today is less damaging than the alternative - cough, no deal.

The so-called People's Vote can wait. There isn't a need to revoke Article 50. Let us leave the EU for at least a year with a deal in place, then have a public, law-enforcing vote on whether the change has benefitted the country or not afterwards - with an EU return option. The government is trying to please the hundred percent, but because of the constant groaning left, right and centre, nobody is satisfied.

Of course, all of this malarkey could have been prevented in 2015, hence my headline. When Labour lost the general election four years ago, the Party was at a loss. They, and I, thought Ed Miliband was the right man to lead Britain away from austerity and towards prosperity. The Conservatives won with a majority. Miliband resigned. Labour needed a long-term solution, enabling them to thrive in the future. There was only one man for the job - Chuka Umunna.

It was going so well. Umunna announced his intentions of being the next Labour leader and many, myself included, were ecstatic by this. He was young, charismatic, articulate and fresh. What more could you want? This was short-lived as, because he didn't like the instant rise of media attention, he retracted his bid, leaving Labour at a loss once more. I have no doubt in my mind that if he carried on with his quest, he'd have the backing of later announced candidates in Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper. Jeremy Corbyn would have been overlooked and not stood. This was the Sliding Doors moment that changed the EU debate forever.

If Umunna was leader of Labour, I'm almost certain that we wouldn't have had an EU referendum and if there was, he'd have led an amazingly inspiring Remain campaign from the frontline rather than sulk from the backbench. After the referendum, in 2017, he voted in favour of triggering Article 50 which, as a Remain voter himself, sounded like a bewildering move, considering this led to a wholly unrealistic deadline of two years to agree a deal with the European Union and Westminster. I can never understand that, especially when he wrote to iNews saying, "... as democrats we must abide by the national result which is a clear choice to leave the EU." He could have joined his 47 Labour colleagues, yet chose otherwise.

Umunna outside Number 10 (Image: The New European)

Since Corbyn became Labour leader, Umunna's time at the Party he signed up to in the 1990s hadn't gone as planned and fast forward to the present day, he decides only now that he craves the intense media attention by leaving the Labour Party and form his own little rebellion in The Independent Group. By creating this bubble, he, along with his disciples, feel they could own this one and only policy matter - Europe. I don't want to get into why I think it's a dunce idea, as I've written about this before.

With this bubble comes a sense of entitlement. The Independent Group isn't a political party but a movement, and the politicians who have signed up to it feel it is their misled right to go to any private debate about EU. You could have imagined Jeremy Corbyn's face seeing a TIG, as the press like to dub them, appear in a leaders' discussion, as stated earlier in the week. Corbyn reportedly walked out, making Umunna look like some sort of heroic figure and the JC some hypocrite. It was juvenile of Corbyn to storm off but I could understand his frustrations. Only now Umunna wants to step up to the plate when the damage is long done.

Yes, I do think Umunna is partly responsible for Britain's decision to leave the European Union. He had the opportunity to stop it, as potential opposition leader in 2015, because we knew then-Prime Minister David Cameron planned to hold an EU referendum as it was pledged in the Conservatives' manifesto. And probably, his heroics would have enabled him to be Prime Minister twelve months from now, when the 2020 general election would have taken place if May didn't take the decision to hold a general election in 2017.

My frustration here is that Chuka Umunna would have made a fantastic leader. He would have been the UK's very own Barack Obama - someone with the right balance of authority, integrity and empathy, someone with logic minus the jargon, someone who can positively connect with communities like Lionel Messi could connect with a football. But instead, what we got is someone who lacks loyalty and patience, allowing his past insecurities change the course of history.

Am I being dramatic? Possibly. Yet, my feelings for Mr Umunna has been built up for too long. So much so that I can never see myself voting for him or believe in anything he says, which is annoying because his political alignment is the closest to mine. He is the catalyst of the process that is making Theresa May the most stubborn she has ever been. Only he, his TIGs, and the Labour Party, can stop this. This is the time for all involved to get together and strap the hard-line Leavers firmly to the backseat, because at the moment, May has her hands tied behind her back and is silenced with thick silver tape by Boris Johnson and the like. This shouldn't be happening at this crucial stage of negotiation.