Luciana Berger | |||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2017 | |||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree | |||||||||||||
| In office 6 May 2010 – 6 November 2019 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jane Kennedy | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Paula Barker | ||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | Luciana Clare Berger 13 May 1981 London, England | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour Co-op (before 2019, 2023–present) | ||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Parliamentary affiliation: The Independents[1] (2019) Party membership: Independent (2019) Change UK (2019) Liberal Democrats (2019–2023) | ||||||||||||
| Spouse |
Alistair Goldsmith (m. 2015) | ||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Birmingham Birkbeck, University of London | ||||||||||||
Other offices
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Luciana Clare Berger (/ˈbɜːrdʒər/;[2] born 13 May 1981) is a former British politician who served as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was a founding member of The Independent Group, later Change UK, before joining the Liberal Democrats. Berger rejoined Labour in 2023.
Born in London, Berger attained degrees at the University of Birmingham and Birkbeck, University of London. She served as a National Executive Committee member of the National Union of Students, but resigned to protest against what she considered the committee's apathy towards antisemitism. Berger also joined Labour and served as director of Labour Friends of Israel. Selected as Labour candidate for Liverpool Wavertree—her selection attracted criticism for its centrally imposed all-women shortlist—she was then elected to Parliament in the 2010 general election.
As an MP, Berger joined the Official Opposition frontbench under Ed Miliband's Labour leadership; first as Shadow Minister for Climate Change from 2010 to 2013 and later as Shadow Minister for Public Health from 2013 to 2015. As a backbencher, she campaigned against dangerous dogs and their owners, food poverty and loopholes allowing companies to avoid their health and safety responsibilities. She was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general elections.
Following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader in September 2015, Berger was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as the first Shadow Minister for Mental Health. However, she was critical of Corbyn and resigned in June 2016. In February 2019, members of her local party briefly proposed motions of no confidence in her for "continually" criticising Corbyn. Later that month, she joined other former Labour and Conservative MPs in forming Change UK, but left this group in June 2019 to sit as an Independent MP, before joining the Liberal Democrats in September 2019. She stood unsuccessfully for Finchley and Golders Green in the 2019 general election. In February 2023, Berger rejoined the Labour Party. Keir Starmer tweeted that he was delighted that she accepted his invitation to rejoin the party.[3]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "Take two: Ex-Change UK MPs forge new alliance called The Independents". CityAM. 10 July 2019. Archived from the original on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
- ^ Berger, Luciana (31 October 2019). "To the group of men outside St Stephens Tavern who were jeering & shouting "traitor" at me a few mins ago – I am not intimidated or scared by you. I also want what's best for our country – I just have different ideas about how to achieve it. Berger is pronounced Berjer not". Archived from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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