Starmer sacks Corbyn’s protege for applauding anti-Semitic death claim
SIR Keir Starmer sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Labour frontbench for praising an article containing an anti-Semitic claim.
The Labour leader dismissed the hard-Left shadow education secretary after she backed an interview with the actress Maxine Peake.
It included false allegations linking Israeli security service practices with the killing of an unarmed black man by US police.
A spokesman for Sir Keir said: “As leader of the Labour Party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority.”
In the interview, Ms Peake raised the highprofile case of the death of George Floyd which triggered the global Black Lives Matter protests.
The star of TV’s Shameless said: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
Israeli police chiefs rejected her claim.
They said in a statement: “There is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway.”
But Ms Long-Bailey, 40, shared a link to the article on Twitter, writing: “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.” Sir Keir’s axing the frontbencher, who he defeated in the Labour leadership race earlier this year, followed his commitment to root out anti-Semitism from the party’s ranks.
Former Labour minister Dame Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish, responded to the sacking: “This is what rebuilding trust with the Jewish community looks like.”Sir Keir’s decision was also being seen within the party as a decisive move to crush the influence of supporters of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour insiders noted that Ms Peake, a fan of Mr Corbyn’s, had also made lukewarm comments about Sir Keir’s leadership.
She said: “I think people will get behind Starmer, won’t they? He’s a more acceptable face of the Labour party for a lot of people who are not really Left-wing.”
Shortly after her sacking, Ms Long-Bailey attempted to defend her action in a series of tweets.
She wrote: “I learnt that many people were concerned by references to international sharing of training and restraint techniques between police and security forces.
“In no way was my retweet an intention to endorse every part of that article.”
Ms Peake said: “I find racism and anti-Semitism abhorrent. I in no way wished, nor intended, to add fodder to any views of the contrary.”