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Ms Long-Bailey was removed from the Shadow Cabinet for sharing an article that contained an antisemitic conspiracy. Sir Keir said in a statement: “I’ve made it my first priority to tackle antisemitism and rebuilding trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority for me.” Ms Long-Bailey later clarified she had not meant to endorse the whole article.

Momentum chief Jon Lansman branded the decision to sack her “reckless” and warned Sir Keir he had made it more difficult to build trust from those on the left of the party.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said “divided parties do not win elections”, but added he had “every confidence” that Sir Keir will maintain unity, although it will be much harder now.

This is a major event in Sir Keir’s “zero tolerance” policy towards antisemitism, and was applauded by figures such as Louise Ellman, a former MP who left the party over the issue.

While Ms Long-Bailey has only now faced consequences, this is not the first time she has been accused of being soft on antisemitism.

During the Labour leadership contest, then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry accused her colleague of not doing enough to tackle the party’s racism scandal.

During a tense moment of one debate, she said she and Sir Keir had called for the Shadow Cabinet to take a more active role in stamping out antisemitism, but did not “remember” Ms Long-Bailey doing the same.

What’s more, Labour MPs accused Ms Long-Bailey of being “deluded or silly” after a Westminster hustings turned into a debate about antisemitism.

In a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), Halifax MP Holly Lynch asked: “Why do you think we have a problem with antisemitic hate in our party?

“What have you done until now to tackle it? What will you do as leader?”

Ms Long-Bailey suggested that Labour “owed Jewish people an apology” for failing to tackle antisemitism.

After the event, two Labour MPs contacted The Jewish Chronicle (The JC) and accused Ms Long-Bailey of “staggering hypocrisy” on the issue, given that she gave her predecessor Jeremy Corbyn a “10 out of 10” in an ITV News interview earlier that day.

One MP told The JC: “Either Rebecca is completely deluded or just plain silly.

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“She was nothing but an outright Corbyn loyalist for the best part of four year.

“She is partly responsible for the failure of Labour to stem the tide of antisemitism within its ranks.

“How can she now claim to be concerned about an issue that cost us the election – it’s staggering hypocrisy.”

During the leadership election, Ms Long-Bailey was also heckled at a meeting of Jewish Labour Movement.

When she said she did stand up against antisemitism in the party, multiple people reportedly shouted “when?”

After the meeting Ms Long-Bailey took to social media and, ironically given recent events, suggested she would introduce a programme of educating members to “stop the conspiracy theories and tropes emerging on the left”.

Lisa Nandy, who is now the Foreign Secretary, highlighted reports that Ms Long-Bailey had failed to vote in support of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism at meetings of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).

Sir Keir, for his part, took an aggressive stance on antisemitism in the debates, saying that he did not want “a single voter to raise Labour’s failure on antisemitism on the doorstep” at the next election.

He added that there would be no “second chances” for those guilty of anti-Jewish racism.

It now appears Sir Keir has so far made true to his word.

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