Ms Long-Bailey had shared an interview with Maxine Peake, published in the Independent, in which the actor claimed that the police tactic of kneeling on someone’s neck, which led to the death of George Floyd, was 'learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services', which Israel rejects.
A spokesman for the Labour leader said, 'This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet. The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an anti-Semitic 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.'
Before being sacked Ms Long-Bailey defended sharing the tweet, posting, '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.'
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said, 'As soon as we saw that Rebecca Long-Bailey had shared this, we wrote to her detailing how this conspiracy theory is false and requesting she delete her tweet and issue an apology. Rebecca Long-Bailey’s response is frankly pathetic.
'As someone who aspires to be the next education secretary, we would expect her to read and understand materials before sharing them. If she is incapable of doing this, it raises serious and immediate questions about her suitability for the role.'
