There needs to be more sanctions on Israel and those responsible for what Burnham called “war crimes” need to be held accountable in “international courts”, the man who will all but certainly be Prime Minister in ten days has said.
Britain’s response to the war in Gaza has “not been good enough and we need to do better”, recently-elected Labour Member of Parliament Andy Burnham has said as he gets his messaging out ahead of taking control of the Labour Party and the office of Prime Minister later this month. Burnham, who is now just a single signature away from taking power in the UK, spent moments in a three minute video statement condemning the October 7th terrorist attacks, but otherwise focussed on the need to sanction Israel and obliquely criticising the outgoing Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for not having gone harder on Jerusalem.
The Gaza war is a “scar on our collective conscience”, Burnham said, while calling out a humanitarian crisis and what he called war crimes. He said:
I know many people feel that in the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza my party didn’t get it right and I’m sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough and we need to do better… let’s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire and we must now do more to strengthen our approach.
Burnham said he was in favour of steps already taken including Britain’s Labour-controlled government recognising Palestine as a state, sanctioning Israeli government ministers, and restricting arms exports to Israel. Saying things have to go further, Burnham called for more sanctions, banning trade with Israel, and dragging Israeli government figures before international courts. He continued:
I, like many people, feel passionate about Gaza and I will do everything I can to work with international partners to stop the suffering. To ensure the Israeli government adheres to international law and to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive because this is the only way to lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
I have been absolutely appalled by what I’ve seen and read about the destruction of Gaza. There’s increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed. There must be accountability for the depth of the suffering the people of Gaza have experienced. Ultimately, however, it must be for the international courts to determine rather than politicians. There is no contradiction between a zero tolerance approach to antisemitism and holding the Netanyahu government to account.
Labour under outgoing Prime Minister Starmer has attempted to walk a tightrope on the Middle East to satisfy both its domestic policy on community relations and broader public opinion, while also pandering to the Muslim voting bloc that has helped keep the party a viable electoral force in areas where it would otherwise have long ago been wiped out. Yet recent elections have shown some demographics that Labour could traditionally rely on as a dependable and directable bloc vote are seeking their own organic political expression, and not simply to be pandered to by a party whose leadership skews heavily urban, university educated, and liberal.
It is known that Labour insiders are aware of these threats to their electability. As previously reported:
The threat to the jobs of Labour parliamentarians and the future of the party itself from its longstanding migrant community voter blocs is something that it is now known that Labour insiders speak in panicked tones about when they believe the conversations are being held in private. Over the course of the Epstein-Mandelson scandal in recent months, private texts by top Labour Member of Parliament Wes Streeting, a politician frequently spoken of as a potential future party leader, reveals this preoccupation.
In those private texts, Streeting wrote of a recent local election loss in a heavily Muslim area to a “Gaza independent” candidate: “I fear we’re in big trouble here – and I am toast at the next election.”
Labour has already lost big hitters from its own ranks to Gaza independents, as the party’s longstanding organised bloc vote abandons it for their own interests. And several more prominent Labour politicians have already come close to losing their seats, with more to come in forthcoming elections, in England’s most ‘diverse’ cities.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage has previously noted that paralysis of Britain’s Labour government on several key policy areas because of this perceived tension between the very different views of British voters in general and those of a small but influential bloc. Taken in context, Burnham’s clearly telegraphed tack away from Israel may suggest an attempt is underway to shore up those votes.
While this goes on, Burnham’s path to power as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom now seems all but totally assured. Nominations to be the next leader of the Labour Party opened yesterday and Burnham is so far the only contender, and at the time of publication only a single nomination away from reaching 323 nominations of a maximum possible of 403, that would end the contest early. Given this is likely to happen, it appears all but certain that Andy Burnham, only freshly returned to Westminster after nearly a decade away from the metropole, will be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.