Luciana Berger
Luciana Berger is Labour/Co-operative MP for Liverpool Wavertree and shadow minister for energy and climate change. [1] She was a member of the National Union of Students executive from which she resigned, in her words, 'because of a continued apathy within the National Union of Students to Jewish student suffering. In the words of a report distributed by NUS: "Anti-semitism is a very light sleeper indeed."[2] Berger was also a member of the Union of Jewish Students and had campaigned for Muslim organisations Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al Muhajiroun and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee to be banned from campus.[3]
Berger is a great-niece of the former Labour MP Emanuel Shinwell.[4]
Having served as Shadow Health minister under Ed Miliband, she has now been appointed Shadow Minister for Mental Health following the Labour Party's leadership elections of September 2015. [5]
Contents
Imagined connections with Euan and Tony Blair
David McKie writes:
- a Sunday Telegraph story on April 17 headed: "Labour should have fought back on immigration, says Euan Blair's girlfriend". This was based on an interview by deputy political editor Melissa Kite with a "strikingly beautiful" 23-year-old postgraduate London University student called Luciana Berger, who recently resigned from the executive of the National Union of Students accusing it of turning a blind eye to anti-semitism.
- In the interview, Ms Berger - repeatedly described, Melissa Kite contended, as a future Labour leader; she did not tell us by whom - was strongly critical of Labour's stance on immigration and condemned the party's portrayal of Michael Howard in election posters as Fagin and a flying pig. Though Melissa, unlike the headline writer, stopped short of describing Luciana as Euan's girlfriend, she said they had been "romantically linked". "Rumours of a close friendship with Euan Blair," she mused, "have elevated an admirable stand against anti-semitism from a campus dispute to the stuff of national debate."
McKie notes that he had:
- a feeling that if Luciana was not in fact Euan's girlfriend there wouldn't be very much left of the story. And sure enough, the following letter appeared in last Sunday's Telegraph. "You published a story headed 'Labour should have fought back on immigration, says Euan Blair's girlfriend', which described Luciana Berger as my girlfriend. Luciana Berger is not, and has never been, my girlfriend - Euan Blair, University of Bristol". [6] [7]
Online harassement
Online campaign of abuse by the Daily Stormer
Berger received a plethora of anti-semitic hate on social media, including the 'Filthy Jew Bitch Campaign' led by the US white supremacist website Daily Stormer under which the MP was sent 2,500 hateful tweets.
Abuse from Joshua Bonehill-Paine
She also received virulent online abuse from Joshua Bonehill-Paine, 24, who wrote five hate-filled blogs about Berger. He variously called her a 'dominatrix' and 'an evil money-grabber' with a 'deep-rooted hatred of men'. In one, he claimed the number of Jewish Labour MPs was a 'problem'. His posts were illustrated with offensive pictures, including a rat with Berger’s face superimposed on it.
Berger took him to court, where he was found guilt and jailed for two years in December 2016. Bonehill-Paine has been found guilty of multiple other hate crimes previously. Giving evidence, Berger said the posts had made her feel sick and 'under attack' She told jurors:
- 'It’s fair to say I was the most concerned I have ever been about my personal safety since I was elected … In the midst of this ‘Filthy Jewish Bitch’ campaign the police were in constant contact with me. They were in my office and home and assisted my personal safety.' [8]
Labour leadership 2015
Berge is involved in Andy Burnham's campaign to become Labour Party leader, where she will focus on campaigns and engaging younger voters. She is joined by Michael Dugher, Owen Smith and Lord Falconer.[9]
Affiliations
- Labour Friends of Israel - director
- National Union of Students - National Executive Committee member
- All-Party Parliamentary Group on Energy Costs - Member
External resources
- David Bartlett, Luciana Berger MP hits back over cash for questions allegations, 19 October 2012
Contact
Parliamentary
- Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
- Telephone: 020 7219 7102
- Fax: 020 7219 2770
- Email: luciana.berger.mp@parliament.uk
Constituency
- Address: UCATT Building, 56 Derwent Road East, Liverpool, L13 6QR
- Telephone: 0151 228 1628
- Fax: 0151 228 2519
- Email: luciana4wavertree@hotmail.co.uk
Notes
- ↑ Luciana Berger, acc Sept 2011
- ↑ Luciana Berger, Why I had to resign The Guardian Education, 15 April 2005
- ↑ NUS, NUS representative addresses government committee on campus incitement Press Release, undated, but prior to March 2005 when Berger resigned her position.
- ↑ Sarah Priddy, PIL: Current Members Related to Other Current or Former Members - Commons Library Standard Note, 13 September 2013.
- ↑ Who's who in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet BBC News, Accessed 16 September 2015
- ↑ David McKie 'The spirit of Meilyr lives on' The Guardian Thursday May 5, 2005
- ↑ PAUL PALMER Luciana and an affair that wasn't, Evening Standard (London), Apr 21, 2005
- ↑ Damien Gayle, Man who harassed MP Luciana Berger online is jailed for two years, The Guardian, 08 December 2016. Accessed 15 December 2016.
- ↑ Labour List Dugher to manage Burnham’s leadership campaign, 16 May 2015, accessed 21 May 2015.
