Chuka Umunna dismisses Labour rift

Published on 03/09/2012 00:00

LABOUR will not regain public trust if it turns in on itself in a new outbreak of internecine strife, a senior shadow cabinet minister warned yesterday.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna dismissed reports of a rift between party leader Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls as “utter nonsense”.

At the same time, however, he acknowledged the party could not afford a repeat of the bitter feuding between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown if it was to rebuild support following its “catastrophic” defeat in the 2010 general election. “I think we have to approach that task with humility and we have to be focused on what concerns people,” he said.

“What we learnt towards the end of our time in government is that when we turned in on ourselves it didn’t work.”

The comments by Mr Umunna, seen as a close ally of the Labour leader, follow reports of tensions between Mr Miliband and Mr Balls – who was one of his rivals for the leadership.

The shadow chancellor is reported to ignore Mr Miliband in meetings – ostentatiously checking his Blackberry while the leader is speaking.