Labour’s conversion to the principle of a federal Britain has won a powerful new convert: the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, is to call on the party to back a parliament for England.

Umunna, who dropped out of the race to become Labour leader early on, also believes the party should embrace a federal structure.

In a speech in Washington DC later on Wednesday, he will argue that the best way of holding the union together, in the light of the surge in SNP support in Scotland, is to give parts of it more autonomy.

“What we are witnessing – as the psephologist who came closest to predicting the UK result, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, has said – is the end of British electoral politics as we know it,” he will tell the Progressive Policy Institute, according to remarks released in advance.

Arguing for a “more federal structure” in the UK, he will say: “I think we can maintain the union but we should embrace people’s natural desire in our different nations to have more autonomy over their own affairs and give voice to the different cultural identities in the UK, while maintaining the benefits that the pooling and sharing of resources across the constituent parts of the UK brings.”

The party should back an English parliament to sit alongside bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Umunna will say.

Recent electoral patterns show that voters are demanding more power, he believes. “They are also increasingly mistrustful of a political elite who they believe is remote … and pulls levers at the centre, at a time when people want more power for themselves and autonomy for their communities. Progressives ignore this at our peril.”

The growing calls for a federal Labour party suggests some MPs in England believe Scotland has been too dominant a force at Westminster and inside the party itself.

Umunna goes on to call for Labour to reform itself along federal lines, with a new, separate English Labour party. “With a federal UK structure, no nation will feel left out; each nation’s voice can be properly heard while maintaining a UK parliament that will be stronger as a result.”

The English party could prioritise taking seats from the Tories in England – essential if Labour is to win back power at the next election, he believes.