Starmer opens fire in war on Corbyn allies
SIR KEIR STARMER last night went to war with allies of Jeremy Corbyn after he sacked Rebecca Long-bailey for sharing an article containing an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.
In a move denounced by John Mcdonnell and Laura Alvarez, Mr Corbyn’s wife, Sir Keir ousted his shadow education secretary for retweeting a controversial interview with the actress Maxine Peake, whom Ms Long-bailey described as an “absolute diamond”.
In the interview, Peake sought to link the death of George Floyd at the hands of US police officers to the “Israeli secret services”.
Speaking afterwards, the Labour leader said he had dismissed Ms Longbailey because the article contained “anti-semitic conspiracy theories” and had undermined his efforts to rebuild relations with the Jewish community.
Her dismissal marks a pivotal moment in Sir Keir’s leadership, having already removed many of Mr Corbyn’s closest front bench allies in an effort to detoxify the party with the public. Last night, some shadow ministers were said to be “on resignation watch”.
Yesterday Jewish groups and party moderates praised Sir Keir for showing “decisive leadership” on anti-semitism, while Tony Blair claimed he was now a leader who “looks as though he could be prime minister”.
However, senior Corbyn allies denounced the move as a “reckless overreaction”, with Mr Mcdonnell, the former shadow chancellor, insisting Sir Keir was wrong and that the article had not been anti-semitic.
In what has been interpreted as Mr Mcdonnell daring the party to discipline him, he shared a link to the offending article on his Twitter account.
Echoing his comments, Ms Alverez tweeted: “I support [Rebecca Longbailey] because she defends human rights.” They were joined by Jon Lansman,
the founder of Momentum, who claimed that for “someone who promised to end factionalism in the party and political interference in disciplinary matters… Keir has now made these tasks harder”. Claudia Webbe, a newly elected Labour MP, said Sir Keir should have instead been calling for the sacking of Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary, who is embroiled in an alleged “cash for favours” row.
The row erupted after Ms Long-bailey promoted an interview with Peake yesterday morning, in which the actress stated: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George
Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
Peake also went on to claim that people who had left the party under Mr Corbyn should “hang their heads in shame” and that Sir Keir was an “acceptable face” for people who “aren’t really Left-wing.”
The actress later acknowledged her comments were “inaccurate”, adding that she found anti-semitism “abhorrent”. But Ms Long-bailey was condemned swiftly by Jewish groups, who said that the claim was a “grotesque” anti-semitic conspiracy theory that sought to blame Israel for police brutality in America.
As the backlash grew, Ms Long-bailey issued a clarification, insisting she had shared the article because of Peake’s “significant achievements “and had not been endorsing “all aspects of the article”. She did not apologise. She
cent between mid-april and mid-may and charities such as the British Heart Foundation and Stroke Association warned that such extreme falls could cost lives because people in urgent need of medical treatment were not seeking it.
On April 25, the NHS had to launch a campaign to persuade the public to seek urgent care after research found four in 10 people were too concerned about being a burden on the health service to seek help.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens warned that delays in getting treatment due to fears of coronavirus posed a long-term risk to people’s health.
The RCPCH survey, carried out in April and published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, showed that the majority of children presenting late had diabetes, sepsis, cancer or appendicitis.
There were also two cases of newborns who had to be readmitted to hospital because their mothers had been sent home too early, before proper feeding patterns had been established.
Prof Russell Viner, president of the RCPCH, said: “The impact for children is what we call ‘collateral damage’, including long absences from school and delays or interruptions to vital services.
“We know that parents adhered very strongly to the ‘stay at home’ advice, and we need to say clearly that this doesn’t apply if your child is very sick.
“Should we experience a second wave or regional outbreaks, it is vital that we get the message out to parents that we want to see unwell children at the earliest possible stage.”
Dr Ladhani said many doctors were concerned that child abuse was going undetected, even though it was likely to be on the rise because of frustrations at home during lockdown.
“Children have been disproportionately affected,” he added.
“Even though they are the ones the least impacted by the virus, they are being affected the most.
“We know they have very low infection rates and their role in transmission is likely to be low.”