Four years after resigning in protest of the handling of antisemitism allegations, Luciana Berger is rejoining the Labour Party.
She was one of several Labour MPs who resigned in the spring of 2019, citing “embarrassment and humiliation” for staying.
Ms. Berger has now accepted Sir Keir Starmer’s contrition, who stated that there had been a “litany of failures.”
The party had “turned a significant corner” under Sir Keir’s stewardship, according to the former Liverpool-Wavertree MP.
She added, “I’m excited to return to my political roots.”
Ms. Berger founded The Independent Group with several other Labour and Conservative MPs when she left her party, citing a “sea of cases” of antisemitism and the dismissal of complaints.
She later joined the Liberal Democrats and ran for Finchley and Golders Green, but lost.
Sir Keir stated that he was “Ms. Berger had accepted his invitation to rejoin the party, writing on Twitter. My test for change was whether those who were rightfully outraged by how far we had fallen believe this is their party again.
“I know we’ve more to do but we’re unrecognizable from the party that forced her out.”
In letters the two had exchanged, Ms. Berger described the “grim voyage” from 2015 to 2019 “during which the party plummeted into the abyss under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”
She stated that she felt she had no choice but to leave, writing: “I never expected to be a witness to the volume and toxicity of anti-Jewish racism espoused by people who had been allowed to join Labour and to experience leadership that treated antisemitism within the party’s ranks differently than every other kind of racism – and that by refusing to condemn it, encouraged it.
“However, that is precisely what occurred.”
Sir Keir wrote in his letter that Ms. Berger had been “forced out by intimidation, thuggery, and racism”. And had made a “brave move,” even though she “should never have been compelled to take it.”
“That day will eternally be a stain on Labour’s history,” he added.
Sir Keir said she was harassed, “isolated, and exposed.” And that the party and British politics were “poorer places” without her.
In 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission released a report stating that there had been “a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to tolerate it.”
It was determined that Labour had violated equality law in its handling of antisemitism complaints.
Former leader Jeremy Corbyn refuted some of the findings, claiming that his detractors had “dramatically exaggerated” the issue. He insisted that antisemitism had no place in Labour, but was suspended from the party by its headquarters.
Sir Keir called the EHRC investigation’s findings “difficult to comprehend” and “a day of shame for the Labour Party.”
