REBECCA Long-Bailey has been sacked as shadow education secretary by Labour leader Keir Starmer for sharing an article that contained an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.

The left-winger sparked a row on Thursday morning when she tweeted an interview with Maxine Peake, where the actress claimed the US police had learned the tactics responsible for the death of George Floyd from the Israel Secret Service.

In an interview with the Independent, Peake said: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.” 

Long-Bailey tweeted the article along with the comment: “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.”

After criticism online, Long-Bailey later moved to distance herself from the claim, tweeting: "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."

The Labour MP was criticised by Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, who called on her to apologise.

She 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."

A spokesperson for Starmer 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. Anti-semitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it."

Shortly after Long-Bailey took to Twitter to give her side of the story. 

She said: "I retweeted an interview that my constituent and stalwart Labour Party supporter Maxine Peake gave to the Independent. Its main thrust was anger with the Conservative Government’s handling of the current emergency and a call for Labour Party unity.

"These are sentiments are shared by everyone in our movement and millions of people in our country. I learned 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.

"I wished to acknowledge these concerns and duly issued a clarification of my retweet, with the wording agreed in advance by the Labour Party Leader’s Office, but after posting I was subsequently instructed to take both this agreed clarification and my original retweet down.

"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."

Starmer was criticised by some on the left of the party.

Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: "Throughout discussion of antisemitism it’s always been said criticism of practices of Israeli state is not antisemitic. I don’t believe therefore that this article is or ⁦⁦@RLong_Bailey should’ve been sacked. I stand in solidarity with her."

In the interview, Peake also used the interview to criticise voters who refused to back Labour because of their concerns over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

She said: "Those people who were normally Labour supporters who felt they couldn’t vote Labour?

"Well I’m sorry, they voted Tory as far as I’m concerned."