Luciana Berger: Anti-Semitism report reflects the darkest period in Labour history

29 October 2020, 15:22

By Sam Sholli

Former Labour MP Luciana Berger says the findings of the EHRC report into anti-Semitism reflect upon "the darkest period in Labour's history".

Mrs Berger, who is herself Jewish, resigned from the Labour Party last year. Upon resigning, she said she was "embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour Party".

The damning EHRC report found that the Labour Party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.

The ex-Labour MP told James O'Brien: "I welcome the report and the comprehensive investigation that the EHRC have conducted.

"But certainly, it reflects upon I think the darkest period in Labour's history."

Speaking of the anti-Semitic abuse she faced while in the Labour Party, she said: "My own experience is one of a catalogue of deeply disturbing incidents that took place over a number of years.

"I was subject to sustained levels of online and in-person anti-Semitism, harassment and discrimination from people that were known Labour Party members..."

She added: "I was on the receiving end of accusations of conspiracy, of bad faith, of dual loyalty to this country and Israel.

"The volume and the toxicity of the abuse that I was on the receiving end of was particularly acute towards the last two years that I was in the Labour Party."

After Mrs Berger's interview on LBC finished, Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party pending investigation over comments he made following the publication of the bombshell EHRC report.

Mr Corbyn rejected some of the report's findings and claimed the issue had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons" by his critics.

Mrs Berger told LBC she had "no words" for the former Labour leader's response and labelled it as being "beyond the pale".