Andy Burnham apology for Labour stance on Gaza: Is UK’s position shifting?

Andy Burnham, the Labour politician widely seen as the United Kingdom’s prime minister-in-waiting, has issued an apology for his party’s stance on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and says he will increase pressure on Israel.

Burnham, the former Manchester Mayor who re-entered parliament in June by winning a by-election in the Makerfield constituency, said his party “didn’t get it right” on the war on Gaza and “needs to do better” once he is leader.

Although a leadership contest is theoretically under way in the UK following the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer over dismal May election results and his sinking popularity, no one else has put themselves forward for the race. Therefore, Burnham is expected to be prime minister by the end of this month.

In a video message posted on social media on Thursday, he said the “unbearable suffering” in Gaza following two years of relentless bombardment by Israeli forces is a “scar on our collective conscience”, but stopped short of calling Israel’s assaults on occupied Palestinian territory a genocidal military campaign.

Under Starmer, the Labour position on Palestine has evolved, but the government has indicated its strong support for Israel by proscribing the action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation last year, and by failing to ban all weapons sales to Israel.

Do Burnham’s strong remarks on Israel’s war on Gaza mean the UK government under his leadership will shift its position?

What did Andy Burnham say about Gaza?

On Thursday, Burnham, 56, posted a video on social media as part of a question-and-answer series in which he explains how he intends to deal with specific issues as prime minister.

On Gaza, where more than 73,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023, including more than 1,000 since a supposed “ceasefire” took effect, Burnham said: “The innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed. But there’s still a humanitarian crisis with too little aid getting in, and the Israeli military continues to expand the area it controls in Gaza.

“We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.”

He reiterated his condemnation of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,100 were killed, and “the increase in appalling anti-Semitic attacks here in the UK, and those who seek to divide our communities by targeting Jewish people”.

“Many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right. I am sorry about that,” he said, adding that “the UK was too slow to call for [a] ceasefire.

“The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” he added.

He criticised the Israeli government’s repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the expansion of illegal settlements.

“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government is clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible,” Burnham added.

“I, like many people, feel passionately about Gaza, and I will do everything I can to work with international partners to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive, because this is the only way to lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

What is the public mood in the UK over Palestine?

There is growing domestic pressure in the UK, where an increasing number of people say the government has not done enough to stop the genocidal war on Gaza and violence in the West Bank.

A recent YouGov opinion poll commissioned by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) found that 50 percent of the British public believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Only 17 percent said they believe it is not, while one-third said they didn’t know.

The Labour Party is believed to have lost significant support from left and progressive voters over its position on occupied Palestinian territory.  A poll for the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign last month reported that two-thirds of Labour voters who have subsequently switched to the Green Party were driven by the party’s position on Gaza.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Patrick Diamond, a former senior policy adviser for the Labour government, said Burnham’s remarks are “an effort to placate those voters who defected from Labour over the Gaza issue”.

“There is no doubt the issue has inflicted electoral damage on Labour. Whether it leads to a substantive shift in UK foreign policy remains to be seen,” Diamond told Al Jazeera.

What is the Labour Party’s position on Gaza?

Labour’s immediate response to the events of October 7, 2023 was that Israel has the right to defend itself. However, it was seen by many as slow to move from that position as the war on Gaza continued.

Even before he became prime minister in a landslide election in 2024, Starmer gave a particularly damaging interview about Israel’s war on Gaza.

Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Starmer, then in opposition, appeared to suggest that Israel had “the right” to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians as the war was ongoing.

He added: “Obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself.”

His remarks prompted fury, including from within the Labour party, but it took more than a week for Starmer’s spokesperson to clarify them. In February 2024 – many months after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began – Labour called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza for the first time.

In the past, political opponents have repeatedly attacked Labour over its more traditional criticism of Israel, especially during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, a period overshadowed by allegations of anti-Semitism within the party.

To step out of that shadow, analysts say Starmer has doubled down on the so-called zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism and has struggled to separate that issue from the genocide in Gaza.

Starmer’s stance shifted somewhat when the UK recognised the state of Palestine and imposed further sanctions on Israeli settler individuals and entities.

However, last year, the UK government voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, placing it into the same category of threat as ISIL (ISIS) or al-Qaeda. This has led to accusations that the pro-Palestine debate is being squashed in the UK.

The UK has also made more than 3,000 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action since the ban was imposed on the organisation in July 2025.

Furthermore, the UK still sells weapons components to Israel.

The Starmer government announced only a partial suspension of arms supply in September 2024, suspending 29 arms export licences while nearly 350 licences remained active.

An Al Jazeera investigation has shown that shipments recorded under military-related customs codes, which are unrelated to aircraft parts, also continued to enter Israel. Between October 2023 and October 2025, 28 consignments worth 6.7 million shekels ($1.8m) entered Israel – and the most valuable came well after repeated UK calls for a ceasefire.

In February this year, a report from Oxfam said: “Since 2015, the UK has licensed at least 500 million pounds ($671m) worth of military exports to Israel. There are also a number of additional open licences in place that the government does not publicly report on, so the figure is likely to be much higher.”

According to Oxfam’s research, the UK primarily sells military components and dual-use items to Israel, notably supplying about 15 percent of the parts for the F-35 stealth fighter jet, including ejector seats, targeting systems, and fuselage components.

In September 2024, the UK government recognised that UK arms were being used in Gaza. As a result, it announced several restrictions on direct arms sales to Israel.

“However, suspending a small proportion of over 360 licences is not enough,” Oxfam said. “The government created a loophole for F-35 fighter jets. It has argued it will continue to indirectly supply parts to Israel via the global programme led by the US – for reasons of international peace and security.”

Is Burnham in damage control mode?

Burnham has been perceived as being ahead of Labour’s national leadership in his calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. He has also thrown his weight behind calls for the restrictions on arms licences “to make sure that no British bombs or bullets can be used by the IDF (Israeli army) in Gaza or in the West Bank”, in his latest statement.

Diamond, Labour’s former policy adviser, told Al Jazeera that “the initial mishandling of the issue [by Starmer] unquestionably caused problems, [whereby] Starmer was perceived to be too unsympathetic to the people of Gaza in the wake of the Israeli military assault.”

Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera that Burnham is “trying to repair [the] damage, but his remarks are probably more symbolic than substantive”.

Bale added that “the UK is already at the edge of what it’s likely to do and say on Israel.”

He added that the Labour party has “only just recovered from the accusations of anti-Semitism that were swirling around it during the Corbyn era”, even as Burnham “realises that Starmer’s initial response to the Gaza crisis cost Labour a lot of support among both British Muslims and left-liberal voters”.

Under Burnham, the UK would need to ensure, Bale added, that “its criticisms of Netanyahu’s far-right government don’t suggest a weakening of its historic commitment to Israel’s right to exist”.

“It also has to worry about maintaining relations with a profoundly pro-Israel US administration,” the analyst added.

Furthermore, Burnham has said he will appoint former Labour cabinet minister James Purnell, who has previously supported Labour Friends of Israel, as his chief of staff.

Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting analyst at Chatham House, a think tank in London, argued that Burnham’s remarks are guided by a moral compass rather than a political approach to addressing voter concerns.

Mekelberg told Al Jazeera that issues like inflation, energy security, and immigration remain top voter concerns, rather than the country’s stance on Gaza, in shaping upcoming elections.

How much is the UK likely to shift in its stance on Gaza?

The UK has traditionally been one of Israel’s strongest allies. That position started shifting gradually after London voted for a United Natopms Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in early 2024.

Burnham’s “acknowledgements and the sentiments that were expressed are obviously a step in the right direction, recognising the misdirections and errors that the UK foreign policy had made”, said Tahani Mustafa, a visiting fellow on the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

She added: “It is worth being cautiously optimistic here, until those sentiments actually get translated into tangible policy outcomes. At the moment, it appears nothing more than just platitudes ahead of the election. This could well be just political tact.”

Mustafa noted that Burnham had skirted calling Israel’s war on Gaza a genocidal campaign, keeping a door ajar to “conveniently obfuscate Britain’s obligation under international law to inflict some accountability on Israel through its trade and diplomatic relations”, however.

“These sentiments don’t really express a significant shift in that direction,” she added.

Mustafa concluded that if Burnham does make efforts towards pushing for serious accountability against Israel, indicating that it cannot do what it wants without repercussions, “it would be a huge milestone that could lead to other states following suit.”

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: aljazeera.com