Brexit: New Liberal Democrat MP says she expects other MPs to join Remain-backing party as deadline looms
New Liberal Democrat MP Luciana Berger has said she expects other MPs to follow her into the Remain-backing party as the deadline for Brexit grows nearer.
Ms Berger was speaking to The Independent on the eve of a Lib Dem conference at which the party is expected to endorse new leader Jo Swinson’s move to make revocation of Article 50 a manifesto commitment in any election taking place before a second referendum.
Expectations are high that further defections will be announced at the Bournemouth gathering, with speculation at Westminster revolving around Heidi Allen, the former Change UK leader who quit the Tories in February.
Ms Berger remained tight-lipped about the names of any new recruits, but left no doubt she expects other MPs to follow in her footsteps and those of Chuka Umunna, Sarah Wollaston, Phillip Lee and Angela Smith, who have all crossed the floor in the last few months.
“I have had positive responses from many MPs from all sides of the House, telling me it was the right thing for me to do and saying it must be exciting to be part of the Liberal Democrats under Jo’s leadership,” she said. “That would lead me to believe that there are others contemplating a move.
“I would anticipate there will be some more, but until it happens it hasn’t happened.”
Ms Berger, who joined Labour as a student and served as the party’s MP for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 before quitting over its stance on Brexit and the leadership’s handling of antisemitism, said she believes that the traditional two-party system is “dead” and there is no way back for her previous party from its lurch to the left under Jeremy Corbyn.
“I don’t think, from my experience in Labour, that it will recover,” she said. “Some people say it will take time to get back. I don’t think it will recover at all. I’m glad to be out. My values didn’t change, but the party I joined has become a shell of what it was
She is equally scathing about the Conservatives under Boris Johnson, branding the prime minister’s decision to suspend parliament for a crucial five weeks before the Brexit deadline “absolutely outrageous” and describing it as “a disgrace” that he has allowed speculation to grow that he might defy the law to press ahead with a no-deal withdrawal.
Following the ruling of Scotland’s highest court that the prorogation of parliament was unlawful, Johnson should “absolutely resign now” and the Commons should be recalled immediately, she said.
The 38-year-old mother-of-two received police protection at Labour’s conference in Liverpool last year after receiving death threats. She declines to discuss her security arrangements, but it is not thought that any such escorts will be needed at the Lib Dem gathering, which she is attending with her six-month-old son Zion and her mother as babysitter.
“The warmth of my welcome has been overwhelming,” she said. “I’ve only been a member for a week but it has been incredibly refreshing to be part of a party which is absolutely unequivocal when it comes to Brexit and which is committed to an open, tolerant and equal society, and where I don’t face a torrent of abuse for speaking out.”
Despite her new party allegiance, Ms Berger - who was part of Change UK for four months before leaving that group to go independent - insists she will not give up working across the chamber to forge alliances on issues including Brexit.
She worked with Labour MP Stephen Doughty this summer organising a letter demanding the early recall of parliament to scrutinise Boris Johnson’s arrangements for no-deal and was one of the driving forces behind the “Church House declaration” proposing an alternative parliament if the Commons was prorogued.
“I’m pleased I have joined the Lib Dems, but I’m not going to stop working cross-party,” she said. “It’s absolutely imperative that anyone against a no-deal Brexit and anybody who recognises the negative consequences of Brexit full stop, works together at this critical moment of national emergency.
“There’s a growing number of MPs from all parties who want a People’s Vote and believe it should come before a general election, from Tom Watson, as deputy leader of the Labour Party, to Antoinette Sandbach and Oliver Letwin, who were thrown out of the Tories. It’s the Lib Dem position, the SNP position, the Green position. I hope we will find ourselves with majority support for a People’s Vote.”
If a general election comes first, Ms Berger says she genuinely does not yet know what it holds for her.
Although she expresses deep affection for her Liverpool Wavertree constituency, there is little doubt she would face an uphill struggle as a Liberal Democrat to overturn a Labour majority of almost 29,500, even if the party enjoys the upsurge suggested in recent polls.
But she dismisses as premature reports that she has been lined up for a more winnable seat in her native north London.
“That’s not a decision I make by myself,” she said. “I’ve only just been approved as a Liberal Democrat candidate. I went through the same process as anyone else, I had my interview and I did a test and I’ve only just found out I passed.”
It is a decision that the party will have to take quickly, if it is not to risk losing the presence in parliament of its new recruit - along with other high-profile defectors in unpromising seats - in an election which is all but certain to take place within weeks.
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