Praise for Berger on Finchley’s streets

ON A drab, rainy Sunday morning in West Finchley, as Luciana Berger and her team knocked on doors to drum up support, it was clear that backers of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour were few and far between.

On the campaign trail alongside her were a former senior Tory councillor in Barnet and a chartered surveyor — both of whom had campaigned for Tory incumbent Mike Freer in the 2017 election.

Outside her home, preparing for the start of Succot that evening, Jacqueline Nicholl typified the reaction to the news last month that Ms Berger was fighting the Finchley and Golders Green seat.

She told Ms Berger, a former Labour politician who quit the party citing antisemitism in February, how she had “reluctantly” continued to vote for Jeremy Corbyn up until the last general election.

“It’s horrible what you have been through and what it has revealed about the party I supported,” said Ms Nicholl, who works as the Jewish educator and arts programmer for JW3.

“I’m doing this now because I don’t want them to have won,” responded Ms Berger.

But the encounter also revealed another familiar story in the marginal seat, which Mr Freer has held since 2010 and where a quarter of voters are Jewish.

Ms Nicholl switched to the Liberal Democrats in May during the European Election — four months before Ms Berger’s decision to join the party, which became an added incentive for her to vote the same way at a forthcoming election.

It would take a remarkable electoral turnaround for Ms Berger to triumph at the next general election, whenever it comes. But her supporters would argue that a seismic change has taken place in British politics because of the still unresolved issues around Brexit.

Finchley and Golders Green has not been a Lib Dem area in the past — the 2017 candidate picked up just 3,500 votes in the seat in what has historically been a Labour/Tory marginal.

But in May 2019, in a sign of how Brexit uncertainty has transformed the political landscape, it was the Lib Dems who came first in the European election across Barnet. Luciana Berger on the campaign trail. Gabriel Rozenberg is third from left

Ever since it was confirmed that Ms Berger was fighting the Finchley and Golders Green seat, where one quarter of all voters are Jewish, debate has raged within the community about whether she could beat — and was right to attempt to topple — the sitting MP.

Gabriel Rozenberg was until last month a senior Tory councillor in Barnet who chaired the housing committee.

Now, having defected to the Lib Dems and supporting Ms Berger’s campaign, he told the JC it had been a “wrenching decision” to quit the party but “the Conservatives have changed — they are not the party I joined.”

Mr Rozenberg, who has had to give up the vast majority of his committee appointments, added: “I know Mike Freer and I’ve campaigned for Mike Freer.

“He is a friend of the Jewish community but Luciana is also a friend of the Jewish community. To my mind, if you represent a seat that is one quarter Jewish then you certainly should be a friend of the community. But that shouldn’t separate you from the other candidates. That should be a given.”

Mr Rozenberg added that between the “two friends of the community standing here, one is supportive of Boris Johnson’s Brexit policies and the other is going to fight those policies”.

He claimed Mr Freer was “supporting a policy that most Jews I know

oppose — which is Brexit.”

The MP himself had previously made clear his support for remaining in the European Union — but said he respected the result of the 2016 referendum.

More difficult for Mr Freer has been his support for Boris Johnson’s policy of a possible no-deal Brexit.

Mr Freer told the JC last week that he had made his opposition to a no deal known to the PM — but he continues to work as a government whip.

Over a cup of coffee, Matthew Millett, a property broker, revealed he had voted Conservative at the last election.

He said it would have been a “no brainer” to back Mr Freer again next time but says Ms Berger’s decision to stand for the Lib Dems has altered his thinking.

“My worry is letting in Labour — but I prefer the Lib Dems’ stance on Brexit. Labour are hopeless on Brexit, while the Tories — it’s just not attractive. I wouldn’t have wanted to take votes away from the Conservatives — but with Luciana, it’s something I’m going to look closely at.”

Like Ms Berger, Jess Brayne, a councillor for Barnet’s Underhill ward, quit Labour in February, “mainly down to the antisemitism and over Brexit.”

She said she was “surprised at how good it feels on the doorstep” urging locals to back Ms Berger while accepting it would take “a huge” shift for the Lib Dems to beat the sitting Tory MP.

But Cllr Brayne added: “I don’t think Labour are strong in this area any more. I think they are going to concentrate on Chipping Barnet.”

As we ventured along the Finchley streets, there was near unanimous support and admiration for Ms Berger.

One man, who spotted her from across the road, shouted: “Anyone who stood up to Corbyn is good enough for me.”

Sachin Patel, the Barnet Lib Dems’ membership development officer, said there had been an “explosion” in new recruits to the party since the current Liverpool Wavertree MP joined them.

But it would be wrong to suggest her decision to contest the Finchley and Golders Green seat has been met with approval from the entire Jewish community.

Outside his home on one West Finchley street, a man in his 50s, who asked not to be named, said: “Mike Freer is a great friend of the community — and of Israel. I don’t think Luciana will win. I think she has let herself down by deciding to stand against Mike Freer.

“There’s also a danger she might split the vote.”

But once he was back inside, his wife emerged and asked if she could take one of the Lib Dem leaflets for herself. FOR THE FULL STORY, SEE THEJC.COM

Anyone who stood up to Corbyn is good enough for me’