Fallout from Rebecca Long-Bailey's sacking reveals how the balance of power within Labour has shifted

Promising to bring together two warring wings of the party helped, some say, to lessen the sting of a move back towards the centre from the socialism of Jeremy Corbyn for those on the left of the party.

But he also vowed to take tough action against anti-Semitism, one of the issues that time and again stymied the party on the doorstep in December and gave opponents easy attack lines.

Yesterday when former Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey tweeted an article allegedly containing an anti-Semetic trope, it was the latter pledge that seemed to win out.

It’s impossible to not compare Sir Keir’s action within hours to the inaction of Downing Street in dealing with Robert Jenrick, still embroiled in a scandal over green-lighting the Westferry development proposed property developer and Tory donor Richard Desmond.

At the same moment that Starmer’s decision was being reported, Health Secretary Matt Hancock was busy defending Mr Jenrick and insisting the Prime Minister considers the matter closed.

And of course Dominic Cummings still remains a prominent Downing Street figure, weeks after his trip to Barnard Castle.

At the time Starmer said he would have sacked Cummings in the PM’s shoes, yesterday’s actions showed he wasn’t bluffing.

It would be unrealistic to say this did not play into Sir Keir’s decision, a sign of strength to compare to the PM’s apparent weakness was always going to be low hanging fruit.

But it also presented the new leader with an opportunity to do some housekeeping at home, and to put a nail in the coffin of Corbynism.

Not only was RLB a key Corbyn ally, she was the former leader and Momentum’s pick for leader up against Starmer himself.

Those on Labour’s left will see this as a provocation and suspect Starmer was waiting for any excuse to sideline Long-Bailey, his allies insist there was no grand plan, but that he simply had to uphold his commitment to Jewish groups.

It is the backlash from her sacking which has made the move for revealing, though.

To see the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, once heralded as the brains behind the Corbyn project, reduced to tweeting a change.org petition to save his comrade, and those who never would have supported Starmer anyway doing mental gymnastics to plead the conspiracy theorist was simply anti-Israel, not anti-Semitic, quite proves the point.

But what more shows the enfeebling of the Labour left was that none of them chose to vote with their feet.

Even those who publicly called for Long-Bailey to be reinstated have chosen to keep their positions on Starmer’s frontbench, saying a meeting with the leader today was “useful”, choosing instead to stay and fight from the inside.

For some, that will be a matter of keeping the party together. For others, you wonder whether they quietly accept Starmer has a shot at making Labour electable, and want to make sure they’re taken along with him.