Finchley and Golders Green constituency results 2019:…

Finchley and Golders Green constituency results 2019: Conservative Mike Freer defeats Luciana Berger

Lib Dem newcomer Luciana Berger took a fresh swipe at Labour for being “mired in racism” as she failed to pull off a shock victory in Finchley and Golders Green and.

Ms Berger dramatically took a stand in February when she walked out of the Labour Party and attacked leader Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitic abuse within the ranks.

She had been hoping to return to Parliament this morning as a Liberal Democrat, and mounted a strong challenge in the north London constituency once represented by Margaret Thatcher.

At 5am it was revealed Ms Berger had pushed the Labour party into third position but had fallen more than 6,000 votes short of ousting the sitting Conservative MP Mike Freer.

She maintained a broad smile throughout the night and went into an emotional embrace with her campaign team, before attacking Labour for its racism problem and failure to engage with tactical voting.

Asking if she had made the right decision to quit Labour, she said: “Absolutely, there was no way I could stay in the Labour Party. It is mired in racism”, and said the “institutional” problem with anti-Semitism had led to Labour’s disastrous polling result.

Mr Freer was re-elected to Parliament with 24,162 votes, while Ms Berger and Labour’s Ross Houston received a combined total of more than 30,000 votes.

Liberal Democrat candidate Luciana Berger (PA)

Ms Berger said that it was a “mighty shame” that Labour had chosen not to engage in talks before the election on tactical voting, adding: “Those discussions could have changed the outcome of the general election tonight”.

Mr Freer, who has held the seat since 2010, was swamped by cheering supporters when the result was first revealed, and in his acceptance speech paid tributes to his opponents and said he had written to Ms Berger to offer his support when she had quit Labour.

“I’m sure you will return to Parliament one day and continue your public service”, he said.

He added that now the Conservatives have a majority in Parliament it would “get back to work”.