Sir Keir Starmer has sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow education secretary, for sharing an article that contained an “antisemitic conspiracy theory” on Twitter.

A spokesperson for the Labour Party leader said: “This afternoon Sir Keir asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the Shadow Cabinet.

“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.

Background: Rebecca Long-Bailey is new shadow education secretary

Keir Starmer writes: Teachers are being badly let down

National Education Service: Angela Rayner outlines a 10-point charter

“Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.”

Ms Long-Bailey, who had been in post two-and-a-half months, had plans for helping teachers and pupils emerge from lockdown, including that next year’s GCSE and A-level candidates should not be expected to catch-up on missed lessons which would, she said, widen the inequality gap.

She had also called for a “national support programme” to help teachers deal with pupil “emotional trauma” caused by the coronavirus.

And she told Tes she was keen to find out how quickly councils could be put in charge of “commercialised” academies.

Ms Long-Bailey was said to have retweeted a link to an article in which the actor Maxine Peake had used antisemitic tropes. The shadow education secretary accompanied the retweet with a comment calling Ms Peake an “absolute diamond”.