‘FOR MANY, IT WAS A PROTEST VOTE THAT WENT HORRIBLY WRONG’

LUCIANA BERGER, 35, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, voted remain. She resigned from the Shadow Cabinet after the Referendum.

On the day of the Referendum I was feeling optimistic, having campaigned hard in my constituency. I continued campaigning throughout the day because some people hadn’t yet made up their minds which way to vote. It was a sunny morning, so breakfast was an ice lolly. Lunch was a veggie pasty on the go. I grabbed a snack in the late afternoon when I finally came in from campaigning, but in truth I spent the day running on adrenalin.

After the polls closed at 10pm, there was an upbeat atmosphere. Someone brought homemade cupcakes to the local tennis centre where the count was being held. I waited there for the Liverpool results to come in. The first few were for remain, but when the Sunderland result showed a swing towards leave, I was shocked. Liverpool voted remain, but it became clear as the night wore on that it was going to be close.

I left the tennis centre in the early hours and was dozing at home at 4.40am when I heard David Dimbleby say the fateful words that leave had won. I felt devastated; utterly bereft and disbelieving. I was really worried for the future of the next generation.

I had been up for the past 21 hours, so I slept for a while. When I finally woke, I still couldn’t believe it – I had to check the news to see if I’d dreamt the result. That afternoon, I held a constituency surgery. People were very anxious. The Liverpool City region had been due to receive £190 million from the EU for skills and apprenticeships and a further £200 million for other projects. The withdrawal of EU funds will also have a real impact on the research capabilities of the city’s universities.

Since then, I’ve had so many people telling me they regret their leave vote as they hadn’t realised it would create a government crisis and actually result in the UK leaving the EU. For many, it was a protest vote that went horribly wrong. People thought the gloomy predictions during the campaign were simply scaremongering. I spoke to a woman in her 50s who voted leave; her daughter works for a European bank and is going to lose her job. There was so much misinformation, particularly around NHS funding. People were fed a pack of lies; now we and future generations will reap the consequences.

By the evening of the 24th, I was very tired and in shock. So much had happened in such a short space of time. The Labour Party needs strong leadership to navigate Brexit and to unite a hurt and divided country. We need to give people confidence and hope again. We can look to history and show that our country has flourished in difficult times. There will be bumps, but if we unite, we can look to a positive future.