Britain unable to exert moral authority, says Chuka Umunna

Britain is unable to exert any moral authority in a world increasingly dominated by authoritarian leaders if Boris Johnson continues to threaten to break the law over Brexit, the Labour-turned-Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna has argued.

Umunna, who now speaks on foreign affairs for the party he joined in June, told the Lib Dem conference that Johnson’s international credibility was further undermined by a government dominated by figures from the former Vote Leave campaign.

In a speech to the conference in Bournemouth, the Streatham MP said the globe faced an increasing challenge from illiberal and autocratic leaders such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“A giant battle is raging between the pluralist creed of liberal democracy on one hand, and a desiccated authoritarianism on the other,” Umunna said.

“What is clear is that we will not see the leadership on the world stage required from the new occupant of No 10.

Related: Chuka Umunna to leave Streatham for Lib Dem election fight

“You cannot defend a liberal, rules-based order when you so openly flout the rules at home. Boris Johnson has facilitated the takeover of Her Majesty’s government by the remnants of the Vote Leave campaign,” he said, noting that Vote Leave had been fined for electoral offences, and found to have used misleading statistics in the 2016 referendum.

“Now, as he seeks to force through this catastrophic no-deal Brexit, the prime minister has shut down parliament and he is threatening to break the law if necessary,” Umunna said.

Johnson is bound by a new law to potentially seek an extension to Brexit, something he has pledged not to do, prompting speculation he could attempt to flout or ignore the legislation.

Umunna said Jeremy Corbyn, his former party leader, was doing no better on this front: “You cannot be a champion of liberalism if you are currently subject to a formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jewish people.”

Speaking to reporters after the speech, Umunna said of Johnson there was “absolutely no doubt he’s lost his moral authority”.

“I don’t see how we can perform the traditional role that people across the globe have looked to the UK to do, which is to promote the rule of law and human rights, and hold other nations to account, when we don’t abide by certain standards, and comply with the laws of our own country,” he said.

He argued that politics was shifting from a traditional left-right divide to one based more on values and cultural identity, and that the expulsion of 21 Tory MPs for defying Johnson on Brexit revealed the Conservative path more clearly. “With the ejection of the one-nation Disraeli tradition you see the Conservative party being reconfigured as a rightwing, nationalist party.”

Umunna added that Labour “has to choose on which side of the fulcrum it wants to sit, and it’s continually fudging”.

Umunna left Labour to launch what was originally called Change UK in February, but after terrible results in the European elections he left to sit briefly as an independent MP before joining the Lib Dems.

Umunna, who is to leave Streatham to fight the Cities of London and Westminster seat in the next election, denied he had been motivated by careerism: “If self interests, or climbing the greasy pole, is your goal, I would not recommend following my example this year.”