LAAS Statement

UPDATE: Rebecca Long Bailey Sacking

Labour Against Antisemitism welcomes the sacking of Rebecca Long Bailey by Sir Keir Starmer, a swift and appropriate response and the only course of action.

We hope further measures will now be taken to address the anti-Jewish racism of other MPs within the Parliamentary Labour Party.

#LabourAntisemitism

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Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, said:

“Rebecca Long-Bailey’s decision to promote an interview in which the actor Maxine Peake made an apparently antisemitic statement, and her later response following widespread condemnation, is unacceptable. She should resign from her front bench role as Shadow Education Secretary, and if she refuses to do so Sir Keir Starmer should sack her.

This is not the first time that Ms Long Bailey has faced personal criticism regarding the issue of antisemitism in the Labour Party. In February she reportedly failed to challenge an antisemitic comment in a question posed to her at a leadership campaign event and was accused of being silent during shadow cabinet meeting discussions on antisemitism. There have also been allegations that she failed to support the adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

The Labour Party is apparently trying to show the Jewish community and the wider electorate that it has moved on from the institutional anti-Jewish racism of the last five years. To prove that there is substance to those efforts, Ms Long-Bailey’s actions demand a strong, swift and decisive response.”