Anti-semitic abuse just for daring to criticise leader

ONCE seen as a Labour rising star, Luciana Berger has fallen from favour after questioning Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

The former shadow minister for mental health was part of the mass resignation from the shadow cabinet last year and has not been reinstated.

Considered too moderate by those within the hard-Left, she has also faced criticism that her background is too middle-class.

The MP for Liverpool Wavertree was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s, a private school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, and her great-uncle Manny Shinwell, a former Labour minister, was in the House of Lords.

Miss Berger, 36, studied commerce and Spanish at Birmingham University and worked as a management consultant before she was first elected in 2010.

She was appointed as a shadow minister for energy and climate change then as a shadow minister for public health.

Mr Corbyn promoted her to the frontbench role of shadow minister for mental health in 2015. Miss Berger, who is Jewish, admitted she hesitated over joining his shadow cabi- net. She told the Jewish Chronicle she only accepted the role after ‘a full and frank discussion’ with Mr Corbyn, who has faced repeated criticism that he has failed to tackle anti-semitism in his party.

Miss Berger has revealed that she has received vile anti-Semitic abuse, including 2,500 hate-filled messages in just three days from internet trolls.

They included threats to rape or kill her, while some featured the yellow star used by the Nazis to identify Jews.

Miss Berger married music manager Alistair Goldsmith in 2015. They had their first child, daughter Amelie, in March.