Although the SNP will be relieved to have finally contracted some new auditors this morning, they’re not out of the woods just yet. AMS Group Accountants will still need to sign off on the SNP’s books by the end of their month and based on the bean counters’ own record with this it’s by no means a sure thing. AMS’s confirmation statement was due on April 11th. It was filed today…
The eventual resolution to the SNP’s arduous struggle to appoint an accountant may have been given a helping hand by the fact AMS has long been involved with politics. They currently handle the books for Baroness Warsi’s charity and have previously donated to politicians. Another company belonging to AMS director, Ebrahim Sedat, donated £2,500 to Chuka Umunna, whilst AMS themselves gave £5,000 to Nick Clegg. They seem to like political clients…
Despite this, AMS are by no means experts in political finance – the company specialises in medical accountancy. If AMS can’t make something out of Murrell’s mess, at least the SNP are prepared for all eventualities. AMS already has a subsidary set up to deal with insolvencies.
Former Labour, former The Independent Group, former Change UK – The Independent Group, former LibDem MP Chuka Umunna has added another job to his already lengthy CV, joining JP Morgan’s European environmental, social and governance (ESG) advisory efforts – the hot sector in finance currently. A brave choice given the last strategic advice Umunna gave on Europe resulted in him and all multiple colleagues losing their seats…
An internal memo sent to Guido reveals Chuka is leaving global comms firm Edelman, which he only joined last July, along with his old flame Luciana Berger, to “work closely with the firm’s regional and global ESG stakeholders… to help our clients successfully navigate the evolving ESG landscape.” In particular, he’ll work on the new sustainability-focused financing wing of the investment bank. There’s no word on whether Chuka is retaining any of his other three roles at Forbes, Digital Identity Net U.K. and a strategic corporate advisor to companies.
Read the internal announcement in full below:
Earlier this year, Guido reported that former Labour, former The Independent Group, former Change UK – The Independent Group, former LibDem MP Chuka Umunna had taken three new jobs since leaving Parliament: a Directorship at Digital Identity Net U.K., a “strategic corporate advisor to companies“, and a contributor to Forbes on leadership strategy. This was on top of his £5,000-a-month chairmanship of the failing think tank, Progressive Centre UK…
Now Chuka has added a fourth new job to his repertoire, becoming executive director and head of environmental, social and governance consultancy at communications company Edelman. Upon joining the PR firm, Umunna (presumably with a straight face) said “I wanted to roll my sleeves up and get involved at the coalface”. He’ll be reunited there with his old flame Luciana Berger, who last week also announced she was joining Edelman…
After a long trawl through Companies House records, its appears the swathe of MPs who lost their seats in the December election are struggling to find new work – with one noticeable exception: Chuka Ummuna. According to Guido’s findings, Chuka has accrued four jobs since losing his battle for a Westminster seat last year. It took two months longer for job-hoarding George Osborne to pick up his third post-chancellor gig…
On top of his £5,000-a-month chairmanship of the failing think tank, Progressive Centre UK, a month ago Chuka took on a directorship of Digital Identity Net U.K.- a “digital identity assurance network… placing the consumer in control of their data privacy and validated digital identities.” The former Labour, former The Independent Group, former Change UK – The Independent Group, former LibDem MP has also added two other jobs to his CV since leaving parliament; as a “strategic corporate advisor to companies“, and as a contributor to Forbes on his natural area of expertise: leadership strategy…
Progressive Centre UK – the Think Tank Chuka Umunna chairs for £5,000 a month – appears to be in danger of going bust, putting Chuka’s very quality of life at risk. How can a man be expected to survive on a mere £80,000 MP wage…
According to their most recent annual report, the think tank is now worth less than £2,500 – with just £1,337 ‘cash at bank and in hand’. Perhaps the donors have tired of funding what is effectively Chuka’s own fan club. Three recent exciting events have all featured Chuka; at LibDem conference there was a chance to hear an interview with Chuka, listen to Chuka on “the causes of Brexit” and learn from him about being “progressive”. All reminiscent of Gordon Brown’s personal think tank, the John Smith Institute. There are however no upcoming events planned.
The centrist dad of the think tank world has faced criticism they’ve u-turned on their promise to publish their annual list of donors, supporters and partners. Normally this secrecy would raise eyebrows, but by the looks of things, Progressive Centre don’t actually have any donors…
Lib Dem leaflets famously always stretch the truth as far as they can. However this year’s cohort of letterbox literature includes a whole new level of post-truth statements. Makes tuition fees pale into insignificance…
Despite only just defecting from the Tories, Phillip Lee’s leaflets have performed a Stalinist erasure of his recent right-wing past. The leaflet implies the election is a close choice between the Tories and the LibDems, despite the LibDems coming 24,000 votes behind John Redwood in 2017, and 6,000 behind Labour.
Moving over to Streatham, the Lib Dems hilariously try and explain that their current “popular local Lib Dem MP” – yes, that is Chuka Umunna they’re referring to – is “moving on at the next election”. 
They fail to mention he’s carpetbagging over to the seat of Westminster because he doesn’t stand a chance of winning in his current seat when voters finally get their say…
