Read this the Times the other day. Whilst it can be debated how personally anti-semitic Corbyn was, some of the supporters (who he failed to restrain) there is certainly no doubt about:
The release of the damning report into Labour Party antisemitism on Thursday brought everything back for Luciana Berger — it immediately triggered a fresh onslaught of racist abuse.
The former MP for Liverpool Wavertree — who had joined the party as a student and was in effect hounded out of it by antisemitism — received a message online threatening that she “would pay” for the suspension of the former leader Jeremy Corbyn. During a Live Chat session run by the Corbyn-sympathising Novara Media, anonymous commentators dubbed her “a vile fifth columnist” and “the face of evil”. On Twitter she was called a “criminal”, “duplicitous” and a host of misogynistic slurs, while all the classic antisemitic tropes were deployed: she was “an agent for a foreign power” and “Zionist scum”.
“The volume and toxicity of what has come in the past 48 hours is an example of the problem that still permeates the left,” Berger said.
“They [former Corbyn supporters] are still seeking to do down the experience of Jewish members and former members.”
She is, unfortunately, used to this. While heavily pregnant with her son, Zion, now one year old, she had received death threats most days and needed a police escort to keep her safe outside the secure zone at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool two years ago.
In 2018 a letter was hand-delivered to her office from people claiming to be Corbyn supporters which said that she would have acid thrown at her, be stabbed and raped.
Perhaps the most egregious example of her treatment is by the party, though. She became aware of a physical threat to her only because of a leak: Labour had not told her or the police. “I happen to be pretty resilient but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had some very low times over the past three years,” she said.
“I’ve managed to come out on the other side. There are other [party members] for whom this has taken an unimaginable toll; they’re unable to work, or suffer in their relationships.”
The report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) concluded that Labour could have tackled antisemitism “if the leadership had chosen to do so”. The EHRC served the party with an unlawful act notice, requiring it to tackle the failings. Corbyn, however, insisted that the level of antisemitism had been “exaggerated”, a statement that led to his suspension.
“What was required was a wholesome apology, not another moment when he has chosen to obfuscate and not take that responsibility. This wasn’t just one event — this is a sea of incidents and processes and the culture,” Berger said.
“He and the people around him will not take responsibility and see that they caused this: by the words he said, the lack of action and by not speaking out. He and his supporters can see this only through the prism that ‘this has all been done for political reasons’, rather than acknowledging the facts.”
Berger required a police escort at the party conference in 2018 after suffering antisemitic abuse
Berger required a police escort at the party conference in 2018 after suffering antisemitic abuse
PETER BYRNE
Berger, 39, believes Corbyn is antisemitic: “Once is a mistake, twice careless; more than that and you are antisemitic. You can’t profess not to be and engage in antisemitic actions. If you seek to deny the experience of victims of racism, you are complicit.” She had been parliamentary chairwoman of the Jewish Labour Movement and last met Corbyn in late 2017: “He wanted to talk about everything [but] antisemitism. He basically wanted me to long it out.”
Berger’s breaking point came towards the end of 2018. There had been deeply painful moments earlier that year — especially the revelation that Corbyn had defended an antisemitic mural in east London — but she says it was seeing herself cast as a “political opponent, rather than someone standing up for something that the party was supposed to care about” that was her final straw.
While pregnant, she attended her last constituency meeting where she faced abuse. “I decided then I was never going back,” she said.
“I was on the way to the maternity unit — there were concerns about my blood pressure ... I could no longer represent the party: the only conclusion I could come to was that it was institutionally racist. I had become ashamed to be part of it ... and I couldn’t ... stand at people’s front doors [campaigning] and possibly get Corbyn as prime minister.”
Berger left the Labour party in February 2019, first to join the new Independent Group in the Commons, then to run as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Finchley and Golders Green in north London. She put up a strong fight, lifting the Lib Dems’ share of the vote from 6.6% in 2017 to 31.9%, but finished second to the Conservative MP. Corbyn’s wife, Laura Alvarez, campaigned against Berger in the constituency.
Berger says Labour’s new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, must address antisemitism in Labour’s ranks, both from a “procedural and cultural perspective” and “proactively root it out wherever it raises its head”. That should start by employing someone to comb through the online responses under the party’s statement in response to the EHRC and evict members who made antisemitic comments.
She will not be drawn into criticising Starmer — although she said last week that he and his shadow cabinet colleagues “could have done more”. When pressed, she would confirm only that she had not heard from Starmer since 2018 until the night before the report was published. An ally of Berger, however, said the deputy leader, Angela Rayner, had contacted her, saying Starmer might mention her in his speech, leading Rayner to tell Starmer to call Berger.
In that call, Starmer apologised on behalf of the whole Labour movement, said he would work with the EHRC to implement its recommendations and acknowledged the “significant” hurt that Berger and others had experienced.
“It was foolish they didn’t get in touch with her earlier,” the friend added. “Did they think this report would come out and she’d sit in a box?”
Berger does not know if she will rejoin Labour. She feels loyalty to the Lib Dems, who welcomed her with open arms when her former party had abandoned her. Starmer has said that it should be up to the departed MPs as to whether they wish to return; though some critics feel that is the wrong approach.
“The party should be hugging them back, embracing them — she won’t beg to come back. You wouldn’t wish her past 18 months on your worst enemy: pregnancy, abuse, leaving the party, former friends campaigning against her, losing the job she loved,” said a Jewish Labour member.
Berger has also had a frenetic lockdown, with a new job as a managing director at the PR firm Edelman, as well as caring for two young children (her daughter, Amélie, is three). So she feels she has not truly had time to think.
She chooses her words carefully: “I am still decompressing ... what has been a very tumultuous and traumatic three years. The report just reinforced how awful it was. Now I have to put my family and my life outside parliament first.”
