During the Labour leadership contest, Sir Keir Starmer was at pains not to distance himself too far from Jeremy Corbyn. He emphasised how closely he worked with the previous leader, praised his success in pulling the party to the left and promised to build on his legacy.

But since winning his decisive victory in April, the new leader has shown a ruthless streak in his handling of the Labour left. He purged most of Mr Corbyn’s allies from the front benches, and has drawn the ire of left-wing campaigners for his cautious approach to Opposition – for example, in refusing to call for the resignation of senior Tories who get into trouble.

Sacking Rebecca Long-Bailey yesterday was clearly his most radical break with the past year. While Sir Keir and his shadow Education Secretary have not always been completely aligned on policy there was no breach between them before she refused to retract her praise for an interview with Maxine Peake where the actress made unfounded claims about Israel’s influence on the police force which killed George Floyd.

Nonetheless, Ms Long-Bailey had to go in order for Sir Keir to keep his very first pledge to members, a “zero tolerance” approach to allegations of anti-Semitism.

‘Corbynism without Corbyn’

While there is no suggestion that Ms Long-Bailey herself has any anti-Semitic attitudes, and while Ms Peake has apologised for her role in spreading the conspiracy theory, the leader clearly felt that allowing disputed cases like this to fester were what caused Mr Corbyn to lose the trust of the Jewish community.

On Friday morning Sir Keir met a group of left-wing MPs to discuss the matter. He will not want to risk more shadow ministers resigning, but equally knows that this is a defining moment for his leadership meaning he cannot afford to back down.

Corbynism without Corbyn

In policy terms, by contrast, Sir Keir is embracing the Corbyn programme. Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon has insisted he is committed to nationalisation of the railways; the Labour leader is also committed to keeping most of the other radical policies, such as scrapping tuition fees, contained in the party’s 2017 manifesto.

It was Ms Long-Bailey who was thought to offer “Corbynism without Corbyn” during the leadership election. But increasingly that looks like an accurate description of Sir Keir’s position.