We’ve got so much time for: Luciana Berger
IMAGINE WAKING every morning to a barrage of racist abuse on social media, or needing police protection for a work event because trolls threaten you’ll ‘get it like Jo Cox’. This is what Luciana Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, has had to put up with for years. Because Luciana is a female, Jewish, outspoken critic of Labour’s handling of anti-semitism allegations, she’s considered fair game by some proCorbynites in the darkest corners of the internet. Now imagine having to put up with this while heavily pregnant.
Last week, members of Luciana’s local party branch tried to table a meeting for a vote of no confidence in an alleged attempt to drive her out ( it was scrapped after a backlash). As fellow Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge put it, ‘ This woman is about to give birth… The idea that when she is about to have a baby you threaten her with losing her job is a complete outrage.’ And yet Luciana isn’t shying away from taking on the leadership – not while the Labour Party has received 673 complaints in 10 months alleging anti-semitic acts by its members, but has only expelled 12. In a recent statement, she said, ‘Nothing will deter me from exposing anti-semitism wherever it festers, including in the Labour Party, where it is being wilfully ignored.’ At a time when many of us would put our heads back below the parapet, she has carried on supporting her constituents and trying to push her causes through – including campaigning for better mental health provisions in the workplace. For this, we salute her.