Chuka Umunna 'couldn't be happier' as he reveals his wife is pregnant with first child

Great expectations: Labour MP Chuka Umunna with his wife, Alice Sullivan
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Chuka Umunna today revealed his wife, Alice Sullivan, is pregnant with their first child and said: “I could not be happier.”

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard, the Labour MP said the baby is due just before Easter.

The couple know the child’s sex, but have decided to keep it secret for now.

“I said when we got married this summer I felt the luckiest man alive — I still do, and now we’ve got a little one on the way,” said Mr Umunna, the MP for Streatham.

Ms Sullivan, a 32-year-old employment lawyer, broke the news when they were on a night out by teasingly telling him: “You know the office ... you are going to have to change it.”

Mr Umunna, 38, said he intends to be a hands-on father and is storing up his sleep in readiness for late-night nappy changes and feeds.

“Being a hands-on dad means getting stuck in and spending as much time as possible with your kids,” he said. “I don’t think you really understand what it means until they arrive.

“Blokes are quite ignorant about these things — I certainly was. But Alice has just dealt with it like the complete trouper that she is.”

The former shadow business secretary lost his own father in a car accident when he was a teenager. He said he inherited his father’s work ethic and he wanted to pass it down to his own child. “My father was very focused and did not let others set boundaries for him,” he said.

“My mother’s capacity to make common cause with anyone regardless of their background is also something I’d like to pass on.”

Mr Umunna said marriage had taught him to step back from the political merry-go-round and take stock of life.

“My life wasn’t balanced when I became an MP,” he said. “I didn’t really give enough time to the rest of my life but in the end I think that’s what anchors and grounds you. I’m more calm now.

“Politics is quite insane. If you get mixed up in the whole soap opera of Westminster you can lose perspective.”

He added: “You know, 2016 has been an unhappy year for Labour people — but outside politics I could not be happier.”

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