Berger said Labour had turned a significant corner under Starmer and that she was excited about her new role. Photograph: Labour Party
Luciana Berger has been given a key role in Labour’s mental health strategy, five years after she left the party over its handling of antisemitism cases.
The former MP for Liverpool Wavertree has been appointed to lead a cross-government strategy focused on lowering suicide rates by appointing thousands of mental health professionals to support people who self-harm.
Keir Starmer announced Berger’s new role at the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) conference, as he assured members he would “never let antisemitism sneak back into the Labour party undercover”.
He told the conference: “I see no greater cause in my leadership than this. This is my role.”
Berger said Labour had turned a significant corner under Starmer’s leadership and expressed her excitement about leading the initiative.
“Millions of people are experiencing poor mental health, without the necessary support to recover,” she said. “The absence of a proper plan to address the causes of poor mental health requires urgent attention.
“Labour’s commitment to deliver a cross-government long-term strategy to tackle mental ill-health is an important step towards gripping this issue, and I am really excited to be leading this work.”
Berger served as a shadow health minister between 2013 and 2016.
As a Labour MP, she spoke of suffering a torrent of antisemitic abuse online and in person, and relied on police protection at the party’s annual conference. One man who sent her antisemitic threats was jailed for two years in 2017.
While eight months pregnant, Berger faced a no-confidence motion in her constituency over her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. The motion was withdrawn after it emerged that a key opponent in the local party had called her a “disruptive Zionist”.
She subsequently left Labour in 2019 to join the new political party Change UK amid dissatisfaction with Corbyn’s response to antisemitism in the party.
Berger stood for the Lib Dems in the 2019 general election but lost, and rejoined Labour in February 2023 after an apology from Starmer.
Berger will present recommendations before the next election about how to achieve Labour’s plans to prevent mental ill-health.
Describing how the party had “changed irrevocably” under his leadership, Starmer told the conference: “I know there are many members of this community who still need to see more from us, and the work goes on.
“But I am proud of the steps we have taken so far, proud of the journey that JLM has led the party on.”
As part of Labour’s plans to improve child health, Starmer has vowed to introduce mental health support in every school, community mental health hubs aimed at under-25s and recruit 8,500 new mental-health professionals.
The Labour leader has also pledged to provide specialist self-harm training to the 8,500 additional mental health staff he committed to recruiting if his party wins the general election this year.
The overall policy would cost £440m, the party has said, and would be paid for by scrapping a private equity loophole it believes would raise as much as £600m.
The government has insisted it is taking action to reduce “the number of tragic suicides”, with an extra £2.3bn a year going into mental health services to help a further 2 million people, as well as £150m invested in crisis services.
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
