One-time Labour leadership hopeful Chuka Umunna has admitted he became “drunk on hype” which saw him compared to Barack Obama.
The MP, who quit Labour in February to launch the Independent Group, now called Change UK, before defecting to the Lib Dems in June, insisted he is a “much happier bunny” after ditching his ambitions to lead Labour.
Mr Umunna was touted as Britain’s answer to America’s first black President when he was elected in 2010.
He was regularly tipped to become the UK’s first black Prime Minister and briefly stood for the Labour leadership in 2015, before scrapping the plan and heading for the backbenches.
In a magazine interview, he admitted he may have helped fuel the expectation surrounding him.
“I haven’t always helped myself, have I? We all make mistakes, and I definitely got a bit drunk on all the hype around me when I was first elected. Yeah, definitely,” he told the Sunday Times Magazine.
“It’s quite seductive ... You can believe it.”
But he has now been installed as the Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesman as the party fights to scupper Brexit .
“I kind of felt like I found myself a bit - politically, anyway,” said Mr Umunna, 40, who is married with one child.
“It was really liberating to be free of the leadership stuff.
“I actually feel a lot more anchored, I’ve got a much better balance now, I’m a much happier bunny.
“Politics doesn’t dominate my life like it used to. I feel a much more rounded individual and much happier as a result, to be honest.”
