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Young Labour dubs Umunna the ‘ultimate ego-tripper’
Chuka Umunna speaking during the Liberal Democrats autumn conference at the Bournemouth International Centre

YOUNG Labour’s most senior youth representative has dubbed Chuka Umunna the “ultimate ego-tripper” after he condemned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his speech at the Liberal Democrat party conference today.

Lara McNeill, who is the youth representative on Labour’s governing national executive committee (NEC), criticised the Labour turncoat for talking “straight out of the Daily Mail playbook” after he said Mr Corbyn was an “apologist” for Vladimir Putin.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Umunna, who is now the party’s foreign spokesman, attacked Mr Corbyn, saying that Labour “likes to think of itself as a champion of liberal values, but it isn’t.

“You cannot be a champion of liberalism if you are currently subject to a formal investigation by the Equality & Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jewish people.

“You cannot be a champion of liberalism when your leader’s supporters think it is acceptable to abuse, vilify and deselect anyone who dares to question the leader.”

Mr Umunna also attacked Mr Corbyn’s historic positions of opposing foreign intervention in Venezuela and Iran, claiming that he was guilty of “lauding authoritarian regimes.”

Young Labour, which has over 100,000 members, came to blows with Mr Umunna in 2018 when its national leadership criticised him for employing unpaid interns, a practice that Labour’s 2017 general election manifesto pledged to outlaw.

The Liberal Democrats also support a ban on unpaid internships of more than four weeks.

Ms McNeill told the Star: “Chuka Umunna’s allegations that Jeremy Corbyn is somehow a dupe of the Kremlin is straight out of the Daily Mail playbook, and shows him up as being as illiberal as he claims Corbyn is.

“Umunna isn’t famous for his solid political judgement or keen interest in the Labour Party, but it’s surprising that he never looked at the back of his party card, where it says clearly that we’re a democratic socialist party — not a Liberal one.

“When Young Labour called him out last year for hiring unpaid interns in his office, he cried to the media about it, claiming that expecting him to pay his workers was a vicious attack on him.

“Is this the sort of liberalism the Liberal Democrats want to welcome into their party?

“I wish them all the best in dealing with this ultimate ego-tripper.”

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