Luciana Berger’s return to the Labour party is not only a restoration but a supreme act of forgiveness. The former MP was hounded out of the party in 2019 because she was Jewish at a point where the whole rotten institution had become infested with antisemites. Berger fought to hold on to her party, not wishing to hand a victory to Jew-haters. This steeliness was not surprising, given her pedigree.
Berger’s great-uncle was Manny Shinwell, Labour MP for Seaham and a straight-talking left-wing Jew. During a 1938 Commons debate, Shinwell was on his feet when the Conservative MP Robert Bower shouted: ‘Go back to Poland’. Shinwell paused his speech, walked across the gangway, socked Bower right in the jaw, then turn to the Speaker and said: ‘May I make a personal explanation?’
Labour could apologise every day from now until the end of time and it still wouldn’t be enough
Berger is more forgiving.
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