Chuka Umunna interview: Shadow business minister on RM

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Chuka Umunna interview: Shadow business minister on Royal Mail 'fiasco' and why schools should teach Mandarin, not French

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The shadow business minister Chuka Umunna may not be in the party in power but there’s no doubt that when he speaks people listen.

At just 35, the Labour MP for Streatham’s rise through the ranks has been spectacular, since he was voted in in the 2010 election. Charming, urbane and a clear and determined thinker and speaker, it is not hard to see why.

And in the last few weeks his profile has been higher than ever, as Umunna has spoken out repeatedly against the privatisation of Royal Mail and what he describes as the ‘fiasco’ of the flotation.

While he has not been alone in criticising the Government and accusing it of seriously undervaluing the postal giant - the shares were initially priced at 330p but have since risen to 555p at the close of markets on Friday - his cogent comments have clearly struck a nerve.

Earlier this month the Business Secretary Vince Cable went as far as to suggest Umunna’s comments about Royal Mail being undervalued played a part in driving the value of shares upwards. He dismisses this out of hand.

‘This was just an attempt to muzzle the opposition and to deny the value of a very serious question. The shares were hugely oversubscribed by both retail investors and institutions and obviously there is a reason why.’

He also points to the ‘undervaluation’ of Royal Mail’s property portfolio of some 2000 sites, which the postal company valued at £787million. ‘Two years ago

Royal Mail sold Rathbone Place for £120million. It is now being developed in a £500million project. There was never an independent valuation of the property portfolio.’

In fact critics believe the real value of the portfolio could be closer to £3.5billion. The whole topic of the flotation and Royal Mail looks unlikely to go away in the near future, not least with a threatened strike by Royal Mail workers looming on the horizon.

However, Umunna is keen to move on and focus on more positive subjects, namely exports and the help that he believes needs to be made available to firms urgently if we are to truly compete on the global stage.

Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce conference earlier this month, he warned the UK is losing ground to the likes of China and Turkey on the export front - largely because British firms do not have a strong enough presence in many countries. He has recently returned from a visit to West Africa as part of a trade delegation, one of several he has made.

While Umunna was born in the UK, his father, who sadly died in 1992 in a motor accident, was Nigerian. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Umunna is passionate about improving trade links with West Africa.

He said: ‘When I am on trade delegations in West Africa I am being asked ‘Where are the Brits?’.

We need a national trade strategy. We need to make sure we are better at making things, selling things and engaging with people. We need more
Government help to sell goods and services.’

He continues: ‘My worry is that the Government is missing the next wave of emerging markets. They appear to be focused on the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and overlooking others such as West Africa. Yet there is huge potential here not to mention substantial growth. Ghana is growing by around eight per cent a year, and that’s just one example.’

But what of UK Trade and Industry, the Government body set up to boost exports and grow international trade, does he believe it is doing enough to help firms trade overseas? He hesitates.

‘The UKTI is like marmite. People either love it or hate it. We have heard great things and bad things too. However, of the 20 per cent or so of firms that export, UKTI is helping just one per cent of them which tells its own tale.

‘Figures also show that in the last 18 months just 18 businesses used Export Credit Guarantee products, the Government backed finance used to underwrite firms doing business abroad. This is minimal.’

While Umunna is firm about the fact that there is ‘insufficient financing’ of the exports industry, he is too practised a politician to be drawn into suggesting how much Labour would commit to driving exports if in power.

‘The Government has a budget of £700billion overall and spends about £317million on exports now. We would seek to see how far each £1 goes to grow the economy. This Government has failed to understand that to tackle the debt crisis we need growth and a better balance across the economy.

He adds: ‘There has been an heroic effort by exporters despite the lack of help. While we are wary of setting targets we would certainly look to increase the number of companies that receive help to export.’

So where does he foresee the real growth coming from? ‘We need to look at sectors where we have a clear competitive advantage, such as the creative sector, low carbon, automotive, life sciences, business services, food and drink industries and so on. While the next wave of economics to target, would, I think, include Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia and Egypt.’

So what is holding firms back from exporting? Umunna lists many of the common complaints of businesses.

‘We know that firms are held back by a lack of knowledge of overseas markets, how and where to find contacts and build relationships with local partners, not to mention access to finance. These are all complaints that we hear frequently from businesses.’

Another issue is the lack of language skills. Says Umunna: ‘These are essential for businesses looking to build in overseas markets. This is an issue that needs to be tackled at a far earlier stage, within the school curriculum. We need to be directing students towards Mandarin and Portugese, say, rather than French perhaps.’

However, Umunna believes there is another, substantial issue which is inhibiting overseas trade and damaging the UK’s ability to build stronger relationships with other economies - and he puts it firmly at the feet of the current Home Secretary, Theresa May.

‘The big problem is that the Home Secretary has effectively had a sign out saying we are closed for business, due to the position taken on immigration and the difficulties in accessing work visas. Combine this with talk of leaving Europe, and it has had a huge impact and created a bad impression,’ he says.
‘While the EU needs reform we must negotiate from a clear sense of a shared future.’ The Government’s stated ambition is to grow exports to £1trillion by 2020 - something that requires annual export growth of at least 9 per cent between now and then.

Adds Umunna: ‘If we don’t maintain a strong export pace it will cost us jobs. But there are conflicting messages coming from the Home Office and the Treasury and other nations are put off by these conflicting messages - deterred even from developing relationships with the UK. For example, on a recent visit to China the Chinese said to me that they do not understand the talk in the UK of leaving Europe and the damage that would do.’
Umunna is adamant that is possible to be ‘pro immigration policy’ and ensure rules are enforced as well as wanting to see Britain genuinely open for business.

He adds damningly: ‘Currently Theresa May is in danger of sacrificing our exporting prowess at the altar of her leadership ambitions.’
With more trade delegations abroad on the cards, plus regular calls on his time from constituents, fellow politicians and the media, Umunna shows no sign of easing up on his frantic schedule. I realise after the event that the interview I carried out with him was done on his birthday - a day that he also spoke at a conference and held several meetings.

Hopefully he had time to celebrate at some point. In the meantime Umunna is waiting for the National Audit Office to set out the timetable for carrying out an independent valuation of Royal Mail.

He has also written to the Public Accounts Committee, headed by the ferocious Margaret Hodge, asking it to look into the whole matter.
While the outcome has yet to be seen, with JP Morgan suggesting last week that Royal Mail could be worth close to £10billion, including debts, it seems highly likely his vocal disquiet over the handling of the sale will prove well-founded.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Does anyone actually listen to what this guy says anymore?
He changes his mind/position almost on a daily basis.

[DirtyHarry]

He's like most politicians, completely untrustworthy.

[Ahebban]

We are yesterday's news as far as he is concerned. The only value we are to him now is in scoring some political points off the coalition. If he and Labour were truly concerned for the business they have had ample opportunity to do more than speak out. We needed 'action' as well as 'words' - sadly, we got the latter only.

[Chelseablue]

The Tories and labour have lost 150'000 votes in the next election All corrupt pigs .

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The Tories and labour have lost 150'000 votes in the next election All corrupt pigs .

149,999 - I never voted for either in the last election.