On the day Theresa May called the general election, Chuka Umunna had just returned to work from paternity leave. Any hope of a politically tranquil period was immediately ended. But the Labour candidate displays no trace of weariness when I meet him in south London. “It’s been very different. I haven’t been campaigning with a little one before,” Umunna quips, smiling at his ten-week-old daughter and his wife, Alice Sullivan, an employment lawyer.
At Café Barcelona in his Streatham constituency, with the sun streaming in, he speaks of having “really enjoyed” the campaign. In 2015, as shadow business secretary, he was stuck on the treadmill of party events and media appearances. Now, as a backbencher, he has been liberated to campaign freely. “I’ve actually spoken to more people than I did at the last general election and feel I’ve got a better picture of the country,” the 38-year-old tells me as he relaxedly sips a frappé.
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