Luciana Berger will take on a key role within Labor after resigning over anti-Semitism
Luciana Berger has been given a key role in Labour’s mental health strategy, five years after leaving the party over its handling of anti-Semitism cases.
The former MP for Liverpool Wavertree has been appointed to lead an intergovernmental strategy aimed at reducing suicide rates by appointing thousands of mental health professionals to support people who self-harm.
Keir Starmer announced Berger’s new role at the Jewish Labor Movement (JLM) conference, where he assured members that he would “never allow anti-Semitism to creep into the Labor Party undercover”.
He told the conference: “I see no greater cause in my leadership than this. This is my role.”
Berger said Labor had taken an important step under Starmer’s leadership and expressed her enthusiasm about leading the initiative.
“Millions of people are experiencing poor mental health, without the necessary support to recover,” she said. “The lack of a good plan to tackle the causes of poor mental health requires urgent attention.
“Labour’s commitment to delivering a long-term, cross-government strategy to tackle mental health issues is an important step towards tackling this problem, and I am very excited to be leading this work.”
Berger was shadow health minister between 2013 and 2016.
As a Labor MP, she spoke out about a flood of anti-Semitic abuse online and in person, and relied on police protection at the party’s annual conference. One man who made anti-Semitic threats to her was given a two-year prison sentence in 2017.
While eight months pregnant, Berger faced a vote of no confidence in her constituency over her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. The motion was withdrawn after it emerged that a key opponent in the local party had called her a ‘disruptive Zionist’.
She then left Labor in 2019 to join new political party Change UK, amid dissatisfaction with Corbyn’s response to anti-Semitism in the party.
Berger stood for the Lib Dems at the 2019 general election but lost, rejoining Labor in February 2023 after an apology from Starmer.
Berger will make recommendations before the next election on how Labour’s plans to prevent mental health problems can be achieved.
Describing how the party had been “irrevocably changed” under his leadership, Starmer told the conference: “I know there are many members of this community who still need to see more from us, and the work continues.