Luciana Berger

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Luciana Clare Berger (born 13 May 1981) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019.

She resigned from the Labour Party in 2019 and co-founded The Independent Group.

She later joined the Liberal Democrats and stood unsuccessfully for Finchley and Golders Green in 2019.

As a member of the Opposition Shadow Cabinet, she was Shadow Minister for Public Health from 2013 to 2015, and then Shadow Minister for Mental Health from 2015 to 2016.Born in London, Berger attained degrees at the University of Birmingham and Birkbeck, University of London.

She served as a National Executive Committee member of the National Union of Students, but resigned to protest against what she considered the committee's apathy towards antisemitism.

Berger also joined Labour and served as Director of Labour Friends of Israel.

Appointed Labour candidate for Liverpool Wavertree—her selection attracted criticism for resulting from a centrally-imposed all-women shortlist—she was then elected an MP in the 2010 general election. As an MP, Berger joined the Shadow Cabinet under Ed Miliband's Labour leadership.

She campaigned against dangerous dogs and their owners, as well as food poverty, and raised the issue of loopholes allowing companies to avoid their health and safety responsibilities.

She was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general elections.

Berger was critical of Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected Labour leader in 2015, and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in 2016.

In February 2019, members of her local party briefly proposed motions of no confidence in her for "continually" criticising Corbyn.

Later that month, she joined other former Labour and Conservative MPs in forming Change UK, but left this group in June 2019 to sit as an Independent MP, before joining the Liberal Democrats in September 2019.

Early life

Berger was born in London and raised in Wembley, north-west London. She is a great-niece of trade union official and Labour MP Manny Shinwell, who rose to be a Minister in the Ramsay MacDonald government and in the Attlee government, as Secretary of State for War in the latter. He was of Polish Jewish extraction, and was the last MP to throw a punch in parliament, after taking exception to a Conservative MP suggesting that he "get back to Poland".

Her father, Howard, studied law at university and initially practised as a solicitor; he now runs a home-furnishings shop. Her mother, Antonia, is an interior designer and children's book writer, wrote a musical hit that made the French charts in the 1960s, and was a counsellor in a palliative care unit. Her grandfather sold ladies’ fashions from a market stall, and her brother is a professional musician. According to Berger, the family was more culturally Jewish than religiously so. She said of her Jewish heritage: "I went to the synagogue a lot, and I was part of a strong community. One of its values, ‘Tikkun olam’, literally means 'repairing the world', and it instilled strong values in me at quite young age." She has described that throughout her upbringing the Labour Party was "part of [her] DNA," and her "family's heritage."

Education

Berger was educated at Haberdashers' School for Girls, a private school in Elstree, Hertfordshire. Berger subsequently gained a degree in commerce with Spanish from the University of Birmingham in 2004. She was named the University of Birmingham 2012 Alumna of the Year. She spent a year studying in ICADE in Madrid, Spain. Berger then took on on a part-time basis and completed a master's degree (MSc) in government, politics and policy at Birkbeck, University of London.

Berger was a National Executive Committee member of the National Union of Students, Britain's main student representative organisation, serving as an elected member for two years. She co-convened the NUS Anti-Racism/Anti-Fascism Campaign.

In April 2005, Berger resigned from the committee along with two other committee members, saying "While I accuse no one of Antisemitism, this year NUS has been a bystander to Jew-hatred". A later independent inquiry later cleared the NUS of failing to tackle antisemitism, but on the other hand criticised the union for not having rigorous complaints procedures in place, and for "lack of proactive response to allegations of anti-semitism". The report recommended that the union apologise. The report was also critical of Berger, for—following complaints from Jewish students that the union was tolerating antisemitism—attending a meeting with the head of the School of Oriental and African Studies, inasmuch as the report suggested that given that she was a national executive member Berger should not have attended the meeting (which it said was implicitly critical of the union), and instead should have sought to support the union in addressing the problem first.

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Early career

Berger began her career with Accenture's government strategy Unit from 2005 to 2006, advising the UK Treasury and other parts of the UK government on how to be more effective and efficient. From 2006 to 2007, she served for the National Health Service (NHS) Confederation as both a government and parliamentary leader, advocating for the NHS in the federal government. She also ran a non-profit campaigning and education group in the Middle East, which collaborated with political socialists and labour unions for peace and stability.

Berger, the head of Labour Friends of Israel from 2007 to 2010, and resigned before the 2010 general election to stand in Liverpool. She served on the board of the London Jewish Forum, an organization committed to Jewish life in London, and resigned when she was elected to parliament in 2010.

Parliamentary career

In early 2010, Berger was chosen as a prospective legislative candidate (PPC) by the Liverpool Wavertree Party. The Labour National Executive Committee's imposition of an all-women shortlist (AWS) on the local party was condemned, and Labour leadership was accused of parachuting Berger in as a candidate.

Berger lived at the home of Jane Kennedy for a month before finding her partner, Labour Minister Peter Dowling, who oversaw the selection process. The completed ballot papers were returned to Kennedy's home address. Kennedy said that she and Dowling had behaved properly. Berger defeated her nearest competitor by a ratio of two votes to one.

Berger was elected with 51% of the vote in the 2010 general election.

She campaigned against dangerous dogs and their owners from the start of 2010. In reaction to the deaths of a number of children by dangerous dogs and the injuries that have resulted in the injuries of 5,000 postmen and women a year, she suggested that police take action on private property, issue dog control cards, and instigate mandatory micro-chipping so that dogs and their owners can be identified more easily.

Berger appeared on Radio Five Live on October 31, 2010, alongside other artists Kelvin MacKenzie, the Sun's former editor. MacKenzie was editor at a time when the paper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster led to the vilification of MacKenzie. "Wast mad for the MP bit with Amber Rudd?" Berger posted on Twitter, "I wasn't aware of who the other guests were."

Berger launched a campaign in March 2011 to Save BBC Radio Merseyside, in reaction to the BBC's call to cut locally produced content on their local radio network to only the breakfast and drivetime segments and syndicating Five Live during the daytime.

Berger was a member of Labour Friends of Israel. In September 2011, the Jewish Chronicle announced that she had been mocked by the Jewish community in Liverpool and supporters of Israel for failing to use her position to defend Israel, and that the reason was motivated by career advancement. She had not mentioned Israel in any of her parliamentary speeches after 16 months in parliament.

During a debate on October 13, Berger argued in favour of encouraging MPs to tweet in the House of Commons. "Anti-democratic, regressive, and bemusing to the public," she said, "It's a very good way to connect with communities we were elected to represent."

Berger fought against food poverty, which she referred to as a "national disaster." Breadline Britain, she produced and directed a film about food poverty in 2012. She was the first woman to demand a parliamentary discussion on food banks, and she brought the issue back to parliament more than 16 times.

Berger addressed the issue in 2012 and later, when loopholes were used by companies to remove their health and safety obligations from their workplaces. Parliament owes it to parliament to close those loopholes, according to her.

Berger applied for selection as a Labour Party candidate for the position of Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region in 2015, but it was not successful on August 10. She was the only woman running for the newly elected metro mayor position.

Berger was elected to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and the Finance and Services Committee shortly after her 2010 election in 2010, but she left the positions when she was appointed a junior shadow minister in October of this year. In 2016, she returned to the backbenches, later the Health and Social Care Committee, from October 2016 to May 2017 and November 2017.

Berger described receiving a "torrent of anti-semitic abuse" from the time she was chosen and elected as an MP.

After making a string of anti-semitic remarks to Berger at the Liverpool Music Awards in January 2013, Merseyside music promoter Philip Hayes was found guilty of a racially insulted public order offence and fined £120. He later apologised and said he had been inebriated and was behaving out of character.

Garron Helm, a member of the neo-Nazi National Action youth group, was jailed for four weeks after sending an antisemitic tweet to Berger in August 2014. He was in jail for two weeks before being released. Following the conviction, it was revealed that similar messages were sent to her were being posted on Twitter. "I was the subject of 2,500 hate messages in the space of three days," Berger said in December 2014. "At the time of the violence, the police said I was the object of 2,500 hate messages in the space of three days." She had to take security precautions in Liverpool, as well as at her London home. She has accused Twitter of ineffective response to the issue. "The website could begin by proactively banning racist words that aren't allowed to be printed in newspapers or broadcast on television that may not be used in a positive way," she says.

"Protect child welfare rights is protected," says Jack Sen., a potential parliamentary candidate for West Lancashire, during the 2015 general election campaign. You'd send the money to Poland/Israel if you had it your way. Sen. Theresa May has been suspended from the party for an antisemitic tweet to Berger, as well as other related remarks.

In December 2016, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a sponsor of Garron Helm and a self-described far-right exile, was found to have racially escalated abuse of Berger. He was sentenced to two years in jail for two years.

Since pleaded guilty to nine charges, including sending Berger death threats and antisemitic messages signed "your friend the Nazi," John Nimmo was sentenced to 27 months in prison in February 2017.

After Berger asked Jeremy Corbyn's office in March 2018 why she had protested Mear One's removal by a local council in 2012, she suffered more online abuse, according to her. "People believe there is a place for anti-Semitism on the left," she says. She also referred to the antisemitic abuse she had received on Twitter with the hashtag 'JC4PM,' a hashtag that promoted Jeremy Corbyn's prime ministerial campaign.

Jack Coulson, a teen obsessed with neo-Nazism and who reportedly told an acquaintance that he was going to murder Berger, was sentenced to eight and a half months in July 2018 for illegal possession of a document. He had been suspended for making a pipe bomb.

Berger, the Conservative government's Environment Minister, was dismissive of the Conservative government's environmental policies for three years. She specialized in particular on the Green Investment Bank and the Green Deal, writing in The Guardian's environment section about the urgent need for a pro-environmental-business strategy. Berger wrote an article for Labour's Left Foot Forward in the run-up to the 2011 budget, urging the Exchequer's Chancellor to perform "three Climate Change assessments" in order for the government to meet the Prime Minister's target of being the "Greenest Government ever."

Berger's apprenticeship scheme, the Green Deal, received an extension to the Energy bill in June 2011. According to the amendment, the Secretary of State will consult with parliament on the Green Deal's proposals for an apprenticeship scheme. In The Independent, she later sluggishly condemned the Green Deal, saying, "because of sky-high interest rates, hidden fees, and penalty payments, the likelihood for most people is that the Green Deal ends up costing them more than they save."

Following a frontbench reshuffle, Berger was named Shadow Minister for Public Health on October 8, 2013. She had previously signed parliamentary resolutions in favour of NHS funding for homeopathy. "Lucania entirely supports the scientific evidence behind the use of homeopathy," a Labour Party spokesperson said. These old petitions will have no effect on her work as a shadow Health Minister.

Berger was reelected with a 69.3% majority in the 2015 general election. Berger was named as the newly elected Shadow Minister for Mental Health following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party Leader in September 2015. In the then-current Conservative government, the position did not have a sizable counterpart. On June 26, 2016, she resigned from the post in a mass resignation of shadow ministers from Labour's frontbench over concerns over Corbyn's leadership.

Berger was reelected with a 79.6% majority in the 2017 general election. She was named Parliament chair of the Jewish Labour Movement following the 2016 general election, a position she held until leaving the parliamentary party in February 2019.

Two motions of no confidence in her had been submitted by local lawmakers on February 7, 2019, both condemning her for "continuously" criticizing Labour Party leader Bob Berger. Both motions were withdrawn. Though both motions related to Berger's attacks on the party's leadership, John McDonnell suggested that the possibility that Berger was considering co-founding a breakaway faction was a contributing factor. Louise Ellman, another Liverpool Jewish Labour MP, said the motivation had been antisemitic. In the Commons, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson defended Berger, saying she had "our solidarity, our help" as she fights bullying and bigotry from members of her own local group. They bring disgrace to the party I love." "The fact that someone like Luciana Berger, a highly educated, influential member of parliament doing her best for her constituents, is troubling to us, especially because she is the subject of a no-confidence motion with this kind of complaint swirling around, is troubling for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair."

In a riot over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, Berger and six others, including Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, and Ann Coffey, resigned from the Labour Party on February 18, 2019 - later Change UK. She described the Labour Party as "inherently anti-Semitic" in Berger's resigning address, and that she was "ashamed to remain in the Labour Party." The group cited differences over Brexit and antisemitism in the organisation as reasons for the decision. They gained four more members after increasing their total number to eleven, but also the Conservatives' Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston.

She left Change UK in June 2019 to sit as an independent MP. Berger, a founding member of The Independents, a faction of MPs, in July 2019.

Berger's spokeswoman said she had "no intention" of joining the Liberal Democrats in July 2019. However, just two months later, she rejoined the Liberal Democrats and cited their anti-Brexit campaign as her primary reason for doing so. The antisemitism allegations that had caused her to leave Labour's Labour Party in December of that year were also unsolved within the party. Jo Swinson, the party's spokesperson for health, well-being, and social care when it was first elected in 2019.

At the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Berger was elected as the Liberal Democrat nominee for Finchley and Golders Green. She made the decision to stand in the constituency due to the high Jewish population in the region and the large number of its voters who had voted to remain in the EU; she also said she had more of a connection to living in London and that her children would be raised there than in Liverpool. She received 39% of the vote and came in second second place to Conservative Party Mike Freer, who received 43.8% and a majority of 11.9%.

Post-political career

Berger became the Managing Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs at Edelman UK on July 1, 2020, specializing in health, food, and beverages, climate change, and energy policy.

Berger said she had "absolutely no regrets" in her decision to leave the Labour Party in June 2021 in a Jewish News interview, hinting at a potential return to frontline politics in the future.

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Personal life and awards

Berger married Liverpool music manager Alistair Goldsmith at the city's Princes Road Synagogue in June 2015. The couple's first child, a daughter, Amelie, was born in March 2017 and their second child, a son, Zion, in March 2019. She observes the main Jewish holidays.

As a student activist and new Labour MP, Berger was romantically linked to Tony Blair's son Euan and with Chuka Umunna, later also a member of the Liberal Democrats. She denied that she was involved in a relationship with Blair, but confirmed that she was once romantically involved with Umunna.

Berger was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for her campaign against food poverty, in which she had produced a film to highlight the growing concerns of some of her constituents reliant on food banks.

Berger became a vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council in June 2019.