Chuka Umunna: He's Never Married

If you thought that a Tory majority government ostensibly being led by a moderniser might dull the instincts of social conservatives then think again. Conservative Woman founder and co-editor Laura Perrins has dedicated an entire post to her assertion that Labour leadership candidate Chuka Umunna not being married, errrr, “sets off alarm bells”.

Those wondering why Perrins never paused to consider whether this is any of her business should familiarise themselves with her oeuvre for the Telegraph and Catholic Herald, among others:

“You back gay marriage? Polygamy is fine then”
“Dave is comfortable with marriage, especially gay marriage”
“I deplore gay or straight surrogacy”
“Mothers are needed to save the family, not the economy”

From today’s piece:

“If Mr Umunna has been dragging his heals [sic] over his decision to get hitched it means one of three things. It could mean he is lazy and is not bothered with getting married; it could mean he is unromantic and ‘does not see the point of getting married’ (as is the way in the hip liberal North London set); or, he is a narcissist and he thinks no woman is really good enough for him. None of these traits is attractive."

This is bad enough when taken at face value. But could it actually be something far more sinister: namely a dog-whistle attack?

Some of the comments below the piece might suggest so...

Political Scrapbook.

Whatever, Chuka appears to be quite the ladies' man, but clearly still ripe for othering.

PS See also David Aaronovitch in The Times Thursday, Memo To Labour: We're all metrosexual now.

Even before Chuka Umunna had made his Swindon video and declared his candidacy for the Labour leadership, he had been declared geographically ineligible for the job. John Mann, the tweeting member for Bassetlaw (where Nottinghamshire cuddles up to South Yorkshire) said last Friday that Mr Umunna could not win in the north. The following day my fellow columnist Janice Turner, having asked whether Labour was still a party for the working class, described Mr Umunna as “a preening metrosexual who’d never cut it in the north”.