KEIR Starmer faces a sizeable rebellion from Labour’s left over his decision to sack Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an article that contained an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.

The party leader has been publicly criticised by some of his own MPs and MSPs, and some Jeremy Corbyn supporters have even quit over the unexpected dismissal. 

Long-Bailey 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.

Starmer held a video conference with a number of the Campaign Group of leftwing MPs on Friday morning, including Corbyn and John McDonnell. 

On Thursday evening, McDonnell shared a petition calling for her reinstatement, which had gathered almost 10,000 signatures by Friday morning.

He 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."

General secretary of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, tweeted that Starmer’s decision was “an unnecessary over-reaction to a confected row.”

Labour MSP Neil Findlay tweeted: “I stand with @RLong_Bailey just as I stood with @jeremycorbyn.

“I stood with Tony Benn. I stood with Tam Dalyell. I support those who stick to their principles and the cause of socialism, like them I won’t leave, I will stay and argue the case for radical change - let’s organise”

Khosrow Zanganeh, a former Chair of Scottish Young Labour very publicly resigned his membership of the party.

He said: ”I joined the party after being inspired by Jeremy Corbyn and the wider vision he had for the country. From all I have seen from the trends of the party as it stands I don’t see the promise of that vision any longer.

“There are fundamental problems with the approach of the current leadership and policies they have chosen to pursue. Their evident and abhorrent disregard and poisonous attitude towards left wing and left leaning members has been far too much to tolerate.”

He added: “To leave the first political party I felt was standing up for me and for what I believe in is heart breaking but at the same time I don’t think I would be true to myself if I stayed in.”

Former Scottish Labour MP Danielle Rowley tweeted: "It would be great to see Keir speaking to activists who were campaigning tirelessly for Labour in December. Many of them have now left. I’ve seen 4 saying they’re leaving the party in the past few hours. We can’t afford to lose or alienate our members."

In her 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."