 On 25 June 2020, Starmer sacked his former leadership rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, from her post as Shadow Secretary of State for Education after she retweeted an interview by Maxine Peake in "The Independent" which stated that the practice of kneeling on someone's neck by US police, as used in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, was "learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services".This statement was seen by many, including Starmer, to be an antisemitic conspiracy theory.The decision to sack Long-Bailey was criticised by the Socialist Campaign Group, whose members had a meeting with Starmer about the decision.