Luciana Berger's campaign in Finchley and Golders Green is being bolstered by a dramatic collapse in the local Labour vote - and help on the ground from former supporters of the incumbent Tory MP.

On a drab, rainy Sunday morning in West Finchley, as Ms Berger and her team knocked local doors to win over support, it was clear that voices in support of Jeremy Corbyn's party were few and far between.

And joining her team throughout the morning, we met a former senior Tory councillor in Barnet and a chartered surveyor and Kinloss synagogue member - who had both campaigned for Tory incumbent Mike Freer in the 2017 election.

Outside her home, preparing for the start of Sukkot that evening, Jacqueline Nicholl typified the reaction to the news last month that Ms Berger was fighting the Finchley and Golders Green seat.

She is overheard telling Ms Berger, a former Labour politician who quit the party citing antisemitism in February, how she had "reluctantly" continued to vote for Jeremy Corbyn up until the last general election.

"It's horrible what you have been through and what is has revealed about the party I had supported," says Ms Nicholl, who works as the Jewish educator and arts programmer for JW3.

"I'm doing this now because I don't want them to have won," responds Ms Berger.

But the encounter also revealed another familiar story in the marginal seat, which Mr Feer has held since 2010, and where one quarter of voters are Jewish.

Ms Nicholl had switched to vote for the Liberal Democrats in May during the European Election - four months before Ms Berger's decision to join the party, which is of now an added incentive for her to vote the same way at a forthcoming election.

It would take a remarkable electoral turnaround for Ms Berger to triumph at the next general election - whenever it comes.

But her supporters would argue that a seismic change has taken place in British politics because the still unresolved issues around Brexit.

Finchley and Golders Green has not been a Lib Dem stronghold in the past - the 2017 candidate picked up just 3,500 votes in the seat in what has historically been a Labour/Tory marginal.

But in May 2019, in a sign of how Brexit uncertainty had transformed the political landscape, it was the Lib Dems who came first in the poll across Barnet.

Ever since it was confirmed last month Ms Berger was fighting the Finchley and Golders Green seat - where one quarter of all voters are Jewish - debate has raged within the community about whether she could beat and was right to attempt to topple the sitting MP.

Over the High Holy Days, if you did not have one conversation about Ms Berger in synagogue you probably did not venture inside a shul at all.

Gabriel Rozenburg had up until last month been a senior Tory councillor in Barnet who had chaired the town hall's housing committee.

Now supporting Ms Berger's campaign having defected to the Lib Dems, he told the JC on Sunday it had been a "wrenching decision" to quit the party but "the Conservatives have changed - they are not the party I joined."

Mr Rozenberg, who has had to give up the vast majority of his committee appointments, added: “I know Mike Freer and I've campaigned for Mike Freer.

"He is a friend of the Jewish community, but Luciana is also a friend of the Jewish community. To my mind, if you represent a seat that is one quarter Jewish then you certainly should be a friend of the community.

"But that shouldn't separate you from the other candidates. That should be a given."

Mr Rozenberg added that between the "two friends of the community standing here, one is supportive of Boris Johnson's Brexit policies and the other is going to fight those policies".

He claimed Mr Freer was "supporting a policy that most Jews I know oppose - which is Brexit."

The MP himself had previously made clear his support for remaining in the European Union - but said he respected the result of the 2016 referendum.

More difficult for Mr Freer to explain to his local electorate has been his support for the policies for the current Prime Minister Boris Johnson and a possible No Deal Brexit.

Mr Freer told the JC last week that he had made his opposition to a No Deal known to the PM - but he continues to work as a Government whip.

"I hoped Mike might do down a different path," said Mr Rozenberg. "He has made a decision to be a government whip, supporting a Boris Johnson government.

"For me as a voter in Mike's constituency, hearing him now claim to have made his feelings known to the Prime Minister - that's just not good enough."

And for many Jewish voters speaking from their homes last weekend it was clear that with the issue of Brexit still looming so large in many people's minds.

"I think Mike Freer has been good for the Jewish community, but I also think Luciana will be just as good for the community," said local voter Nick Gendler.

"And Luciana also represents a party that is closer to my views on Brexit."

Over a cup of coffee, Matthew Millett, a property broker, revealed he had voted Conservative himself at the last election.

He said it would have been a "no brainer" to back Mr Freer again next time but says Ms Berger's decision to stand for the Lib Dems has altered his thinking.

"My worry is letting in Labour - but I prefer the Lib Dems' stance on Brexit," he said.

"Labour are hopeless on Brexit, while the Tories - it's just not attractive. I wouldn't have wanted to take votes away from the Conservatives - but with Luciana, it's something I'm going to look closely at."

Surveyor Mr Shaer revealed he had knocked on doors for Mr Freer in 2017, but now he was knocking the same doors for Ms Berger.

"There is a really good feeling," he said of the Lib Dem campaign. 

"Amongst the soft Tories, all of whom would have naturally veered towards Mike Freer, they've changed and they are considering the Lib Dems."

Mr Shaer also discussed what he called the "cynical" line by the Tory MP and his supporters that a vote for Ms Berger at the next election could help let Mr Corbyn's candidate.

"It's unfair and it's not that simple," he said. "She literally got hounded out of the Labour Party.

"And nationally, if Labour do badly, they will probably kick Corbyn out.

"And as Luciana has told people who are scared about the prospect of the Lib Dems propping up a government with Labour - the party have previously been burnt in a coalition.

"They are not going to give Corbyn a free ride."

Like Ms Berger, Jess Brayne, a councillor for Barnet's Underhill ward quit Labour in February, "mainly down to the antisemitism and over Brexit - there was a lot of nastiness in the local party."

She said she was "surprised at how good it feels on the doorstep" urging locals to back Ms Berger while accepting it would take "a huge" shift for the Lib Dems to beat the sitting Tory MP.

But Cllr Brayne added: “I don't think Labour are strong in this area anymore.

"I was involved in the campaign to get Sarah Sackman (the Labour candidate) elected in 2015.

"She was a really, really good candidate. If Labour were going to take the seat they would have done so then.

"I get the feeling that Labour are not going to be working it hard this time.

"I think they are going to concentrate on Chipping Barnet. They feel that is the winnable seat.

"I have friends in Finchley and Golders Green Labour Party who like a lot of the moderate lot really like and admire Luciana and wouldn't want to be campaigning against her."

As we ventured along the Finchley streets, there is near unanimous support and admiration for Ms Berger.

"We'd be lucky to have you," said another man, a former Labour member in his 40s, on the doorstep of his home where a Sukkah was currently being erected.

"I want an MP with a record of campaigning in the national interest - against Brexit and for better mental health services."

Another man, who spotted Ms Berger from across the road, shouted out: "Anyone who stood up to Corbyn is good enough for me."

Sachin Patel, the Barnet Lib Dems' membership development officer confirmed to the JC that there has been an "explosion" in new recruits to the party since the current Liverpool Wavertree MP joined them.

But it would be wrong to suggest her decision to contest the Finchley and Golders Green seat has been met with approval from the entire Jewish community.

Outside his home on one West Finchley street, a man in his 50s, who asks not to be named, told the JC: "Mike Freer is a great friend of the community - and of Israel.

"I don't think Luciana will win. I think she has let herself down by deciding to stand against Mike Freer. There's also a danger she might split the vote.

"You could end up with a three-way split of the vote which could let the Corbyn candidate in."

But once he was back inside his home, his wife emerged out on the doorstep and asked if she could take one of the Lib Dem campaign leaflets for herself.

As we venture towards Finchley Central, a man, in his 60s maybe, approached Ms Berger to confess that he has voted Conservative all of his life.

"I can't do that anymore," he told her. "Boris is taking us down such a dangerous path - with Brexit and with defying our constitution.

"Now you certainly have my vote."