closeicon
News

Election 2015: Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman both triumph in Liverpool

articlemain

Liverpool’s two Jewish Labour candidates Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman both held their seats in the city.

Ms Berger won a hefty majority of 24,303 votes with 69.3 per cent of the vote in Liverpool Wavertree.

Conservative candidate James Pearson trailed behind with only 10 per cent of the votes.

She posted a celebratory message on Twitter saying: “Thank you to the people of Liverpool Wavertree for returning me as their MP - I will fight every day for you.”

After being elected as Britain’s youngest Jewish MP five years ago, Ms Berger has risen rapidly through the Labour ranks. She was shadow public health minister in the last parliament, and had previously held the shadow energy and climate change brief.

Last year she was the target of antisemitic abuse on Twitter, co-ordinated by an American neo-Nazi group.

A former Labour Friends of Israel director, she abstained when party leader Ed Miliband whipped his MPs to vote in favour of a Palestinian state last October, a rebellion that seems unlikely to harm her career ambitions.

In Liverpool Riverside Ms Ellman enjoyed a landslide victory, gaining 29,835 votes.

Her majority of 24,463 was a massive increase on the 14,173 she enjoyed in 2010.

The backbench champion, and respected chair of the Commons’ transport Committee, is known for her passionate defence of Israel and has also hit home over the protection of shechita.

She too defied the whips and abstained on the Palestinian statehood vote. She also criticised the Board of Deputies’ “bizarre” creation of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on British Jews, claiming it could be hijacked by anti-Israel MPs.

Read more Election 2015 news here

Share via

Want more from the JC?

To continue reading, we just need a few details...

Want more from
the JC?

To continue reading, we just
need a few details...

Get the best news and views from across the Jewish world Get subscriber-only offers from our partners Subscribe to get access to our e-paper and archive