Rebecca Long-Bailey sacking reignites Labour turmoil over anti-Semitism
Keir Starmer is facing a showdown with the left of
Labour after his decisive sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey reignited the party’s
internal turmoil over the issue of antisemitism.
In a swift move, Long-Bailey was summarily dismissed
as shadow education secretary for sending an approving tweet about an interview
in which the actor Maxine Peake said the US police tactic of kneeling on
someone’s neck was taught by the Israeli secret service.
This was emphatically denied by Israel, and Peake
later retracted the claim. By then, however, Long-Bailey had been fired.
Her approval of the interview, in which Peake also
talked about her new film and her support for Jeremy Corbyn, led Jewish groups
to demand she delete her tweet and apologise. Instead she sent another message
saying she did not endorse “all aspects of the article”.
Less than three hours later, a brief statement from
Starmer’s office said he had asked Long-Bailey to step down.
It said: “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 an online press briefing with reporters, Starmer
went further. “I asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet
for sharing the article,” he said. “I didn’t do that because she is
antisemitic, I did it because she shared the article which has got, in my view,
antisemitic conspiracy theories in it.
“My primary
focus is on rebuilding trust with the Jewish communities. I didn’t think
sharing that article was in keeping with that primary objective.”
The swift action brought praise from Jewish groups
and from Labour MPs who had been critical of Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of complaints
about antisemitism in the party.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of
Deputies of British Jews, said the decision showed Starmer was “backing his
words with actions on antisemitism”.
She said: “After Rebecca Long-Bailey shared a
conspiracy theory, we and others gave her the opportunity to retract and
apologise. To our surprise and dismay, her response was pathetic. Her position
as shadow education secretary was therefore untenable.”
The co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group
against antisemitism, Labour’s Catherine McKinnell and the Tory MP Andrew
Percy, said they welcomed Starmer’s “zero-tolerance approach and decisive
action”.
Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who was one of
Corbyn’s staunchest critics on the issue, tweeted: “This is what a change in
culture looks like. This is what zero tolerance looks like. This is what
rebuilding trust with the Jewish community looks like.”
But in sacking Long-Bailey, the only notable Corbyn
supporter to still have a top shadow cabinet job, Starmer stirred intense anger
from the left of the parliamentary party, and he faced pressure to reinstate
her.
Amid reports that the left-leaning Campaign group
wanted a meeting with Starmer or were planning a statement of solidarity with
Long-Bailey, the BBC said on Thursday night that Starmer would meet MPs on
Friday to address their concerns.
A series of individual MPs condemned the decision,
some of them arguing that Peake’s view had not been antisemitic and others
saying the move indicated a narrowing of views in the party.
Jon Trickett, a shadow Cabinet Office minister under
Corbyn, said he was alarmed. “Keir said he wanted a unity cabinet and he wanted
people from across the party. If he narrows the gene pool down much further, he
will potentially get into trouble,” he said.
Momentum, the Corbyn-backing movement within Labour,
said in a statement that Starmer “says he wants party unity, then sacks the
most prominent leftwinger on the frontbench for no good reason. It’s a reckless
overreaction”.
McDonnell later shared a petition calling on Starmer
to reinstate Long-Bailey.
Peake’s allegation was based on a 2016 report from
Amnesty International. The organisation later said that it had never reported
that Israeli secret services taught a “neck kneeling” technique.
“For years, we’ve documented appalling crimes under
international law and human rights violations meted out to Palestinians by
members of the Israeli security forces, though the precise nature of the
training offered to US police forces by Israeli officials is not something
we’ve documented,” it told the New Statesman.
“Allegations that US police were taught tactics of
‘neck kneeling’ by Israeli secret services is not something we’ve ever reported
and the article in question has rightly been amended to acknowledge that.
“The US police themselves have a longstanding record
of using excessive force against members of the public – including Black Lives
Matter protesters, something we reported on earlier this week.”
In a Twitter thread following her dismissal,
Long-Bailey said her initial tweet of clarification had been made in “wording
agreed in advance by the Labour party leader’s office”, but that Starmer’s team
then instructed her to delete both her original tweet and the update, which she
refused to do.
She said: “I could not do this in good conscience
without the issuing of a press statement of clarification. I had asked to
discuss these matters with Keir before agreeing what further action to take,
but sadly he had already made his decision.”
Long-Bailey had initially tweeted: “Maxine Peake is
an absolute diamond,” linking to an interview with the Independent in which the
actor said the practice of kneeling on a person’s neck – which led to the death
of George Floyd in Minneapolis – was “learnt from seminars with Israeli secret
services”.
Peake later said she had been wrong, tweeting: “I
feel it’s important for me to clarify that, when talking to The Independent, I
was inaccurate in my assumption of American police training & its sources.
I find racism & antisemitism abhorrent & I in no way wished, nor
intended, to add fodder to any views of the contrary.”
Long-Bailey was seen as the standard bearer for the
pro-Corbyn wing of Labour in the race to succeed him as leader. She won just
under 28% of members’ votes, while Starmer took 56%.
Upon taking over, Starmer pledged to tackle
complaints about antisemitism within parts of Labour that many Jewish
organisations said had been treated with insufficient seriousness under Corbyn.