Umunna and his girl-friend Alice Sullivan

Chuka Umunna, the Nigerian-Briton aiming at the leadership of the Labour Party in the UK, has explained why he abandoned the race: intense media scrutiny of not only him but members of his family.

In an interview with The Mirror, the MP from Streatham, billed to be Britain’s Obama dismissed rumours of a secret scandal in his personal life and insisted: “There are no skeletons”.

He told The Mirror how a broadsheet newspaper approached girlfriend Alice Sullivan’s parents and her 97-year-old gran “in the middle of their Sunday” at their home in Gloucestershire last weekend.

And on Thursday night, his mother Patricia returned to her South London home to find a reporter waiting on the doorstep.

Mr Ummuna said the incidents “contributed to a niggling doubt that I’ve always had that this is too much too soon”.

Mr Umunna, 36, also dismissed rumours about his sexuality and suggestions of any financial scandal but admitted running for the top job was “too much, too soon”.

“The reason I made the decision is because of the impact it has had on my own life and, principally, the lives of the loved ones around me.”

“I didn’t quite, if I’m honest, envisage such an immediate impact on my family only a week in,” he said.

Asked if he feared a story involving drugs or his sexuality was about to emerge, Mr Umunna insisted: “No, no, no. When I’ve been asked about drugs I’ve been very open about that and other issues.

“Honestly, there is no revelation or no skeleton. You don’t run for the leadership of a major political party in this country if there is some information you don’t want to get into the public domain.”

In 2012, Mr Umunna admitted he had smoked marijuana when he was a teenager but said he had never used harder drugs.

The politician became the bookies’ favourite for the Labour top job after announcing his decision to run for the leadership in a video message on Tuesday.

The London-born MP Nigerian father died in a road accident in 1992 when he came home to campaign for Anambra state governorship, during the Ibrahim Babangida dictatorship.