long-bailey became shadow secretary of state for education in keir starmer's shadow cabinet in april 2020. keir starmer later sacked her from the shadow cabinet in june 2020, saying she shared an article containing an anti-semitic conspiracy theory. the claim came from an article retweeted by long-bailey that was an interview with english actress and labour supporter maxine peake in "the independent". in one line of the article 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 said that she shared the article because of peake's significant achievements "and because the thrust of her argument is to stay in the labour party" but she did not endorse "all aspects of it".