BBC chiefs urged to axe Maxine Peake after Long Bailey antisemitism row
THE BBC was last night facing calls to ban Maxine Peake after she was accused of making an antisemitic slur.
The actress, who is appearing in the corporation’s revival of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues, claimed in an interview that the kneeling-on-the-neck tactic used by US police officers arresting George Floyd was ‘learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services’.
Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey was sacked by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after she shared a link to the article on Twitter and wrote: ‘Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.’
Ms Peake, 45, who is a former Communist Party member best known for her roles in Dinnerladies and legal drama Silk, subsequently admitted she had been wrong.
Writing on Twitter, she said: ‘I was inaccurate in my assumption of American police training and its sources. I find racism and antisemitism abhorrent and I in no way wished, nor intended, to add fodder to any views of the contrary.’
But Jewish groups said her ‘mealy-mouthed’ clarification was insufficient and the BBC should refuse to work with her again until she makes a formal apology.
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘Sir Keir Starmer has shown leadership by sacking a senior frontbencher for sharing Maxine Peake’s antisemitic conspiracy theory. The BBC should follow suit and end its work with Maxine Peake until she formally apologises for promoting an antisemitic trope and agrees to undertake antisemitism training.
‘Her mealy-mouthed “clarification” is not enough.
‘If the BBC fails to act after having taken strong action against some of its own presenters for racial comments against other minorities, the public will rightly conclude that it has a double standard when it comes to antisemitism.’
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘The BBC prides itself on championing minorities. It would be extraordinary if it didn’t take action against Maxine Peake for peddling a highly offensive anti semitic conspiracy theory, unless its woke philosophy doesn’t apply to Left-wing actresses.
‘If a Labour MP lost her job for retweeting Peake’s interview, how can Peake herself escape punishment for the anti-Jewish sentiments she expressed in that interview?’
Members of the public took to social media to urge the BBC to take action. One wrote: ‘Perhaps the BBC should also consider not contracting Maxine Peake.’ Another added: ‘So… agreeing with these racist, antisemitic comments is a sackable offence at Labour. But I’m damn sure that the perpetrator, actress Maxine Peake, will still be welcome at the BBC.’
Ms Peake’s political views were forged growing up in a workingclass family in Bolton. She said in an interview: ‘My grandfather had a life-changing influence on me. He never had any ambitions to be a politician – he worked on the assembly line at Leyland Motors – but his life was politics.
‘He was a self-educated man and he had a thirst for knowledge. He was a member of the Communist Party. I left the Communist Party at 21, when I went to London to drama school, for no other reason than that I could not fulfil my commitments to it. But I am still a socialist.’
The actress has also complained that the world was ‘being ruled by capitalist, fascist dictators’.
According to its latest accounts, Ms Peake’s firm, Flat Cap Ltd, has assets of £532,464, up £155,000 on the previous year.
The BBC and Ms Peake both declined to comment.