Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked as shadow education secretary for England after sharing an article that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said contained an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.
The article, which Ms Long-Bailey shared on Twitter, claimed that the police tactic of kneeling on someone’s neck, which led to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month, was “learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services”. Israel has rejected this claim.
The article was authored by actor Maxine Peake, and Ms Long-Bailey stated on Twitter that Ms Peake was an “absolute diamond”.
Ms Long-Bailey later added that she “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.”
But the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “pathetic” that Ms Long-Bailey had not deleted the tweet and apologised.
A Labour spokesman said that Sir Keir had “asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet”.
“The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory,” the spokesman said. “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.”
Ms Long-Bailey stood against Sir Keir for the Labour leadership earlier this year, winning support from the left wing of the party. She had been shadow education secretary since April.
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