A LABOUR civil war broke out in Liverpool yesterday, when an MP branded a fellow candidate a “student politician” lacking the experience for the task ahead.

Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle turned his fire on 28-year-old Luciana Berger, just one day after she was selected to fight the crucial Wavertree seat at the general election, expected in May.

Mr Kilfoyle said Labour activists in Wavertree should have picked a candidate with “local knowledge and more experience” than the London-born Ms Berger, a former leading light in the National Union of Students. And he questioned her outspoken support for Israel – views which she shares with Jane Kennedy, the outgoing Wavertree MP, who supported her.

The spat will be seen as a gift for the Liberal Democrats, who have made Wavertree – with its slender majority of 3,308 – their number one target seat in the region.

It is understood that Mr Kilfoyle’s concerns about Ms Berger’s relative youth and inexperience are shared by other local Labour figures, who backed city councillor Wendy Simon.

Reacting to the selection result, the 63-year-old MP said: “I would have preferred a local candidate, with local knowledge and with more experience than a young, student politician can possibly have.” Mr Kilfoyle also pointed to both Ms Berger’s and Ms Kennedy’s work for the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) pressure group, adding: “I am concerned about its growing influence.”

Ms Berger is currently director of LFI, while Ms Kennedy has twice acted as its chairwoman and defended Israel’s attack on Gaza in a recent Commons debate. However, the new candidate announced she would immediately hand over day-to-day running of LFI, vowing: “The campaign starts here to keep Liverpool Wavertree Labour.”