Long-bailey sacked as new antisemitism row reopens Labour rifts
● Starmer faces anger from left after dismissing former rival and Corbyn ally
Labour’s short-lived internal truce came to a dramatic end yesterday after party leader Sir Keir Starmer sacked the shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-bailey for sharing an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.
Ms Long-bailey retweeted an interview with the actress Maxine Peake which included the claim that US police officers who killed unarmed black man George Floyd used a restraint technique taught by the Israeli secret service.
The sacking reopened the splits over anti-semitism that dogged the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn, just three months into Mr Starmer’s leadership.
A group of left-wing members of the Labour frontbench are understood to have demanded a meeting with Mr Starmer, and the sacking was condemned by several union leaders and the founder of the Momentum campaign group.
A spokesperson for Mr Starmer said: “This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet.
“The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory. As leader of the Labour Party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority. Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.”
In the interview with the Independent website, Ms Peake states that “systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
The article includes a denial from a spokesperson for Israeli police, stating that “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway”.
Ms Long-bailey – who ran against Mr Starmer for the Labour leadership and was the only leading ally of Mr Corbyn left in the shadow cabinet – posted a link to the interview on Twitter with the message: “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.”
She later added: “I retweeted Maxine Peake’s article because of her significant achievements and because the thrust of her argument is to stay in the Labour Party. It wasn’t intended to be an endorsement of all aspects of the article.”
The Labour Against Antisemitism (LAAS) campaign had called for Ms Long-bailey’s resignation, saying her tweet was “unacceptable” and demanding a “strong, swift and decisive response”.