As Andy Burnham prepares to take office as the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, he has broken with past Labour Party positioning to issue a public apology for his party’s earlier response to the ongoing crisis in Gaza, signaling a potential shift in Britain’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a frank public statement, Burnham acknowledged widespread public frustration with Labour’s early stance after Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza. “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” he said.
Burnham described the ongoing “unbearable suffering” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as a “scar on our collective conscience,” and hit out at Israel’s steady expansion of occupied territory in the blockaded enclave. “We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” he added.
The prospective prime minister did recognize incremental progress made under the current Keir Starmer-led administration, highlighting the UK’s formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, sanctions targeting far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, and the newly implemented ban on the export of British-made arms and ammunition to Israel. “We have taken some important steps,” he said. “But 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 pointed to ongoing violations of existing ceasefire agreements by Israel, as well as a sharp escalation in violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government is deliberately working to eliminate any possibility of a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict.
To back up his commitment to a harder line, Burnham pledged that a government led by him would explore additional punitive measures, including expanded sanctions against violent Israeli settlers and a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements built illegally on occupied Palestinian land.
Burnham’s comments have drawn intense global scrutiny, as political observers widely expect him to assume the role of UK prime Minister when a new leadership is confirmed next month. A well-known former mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham only returned to the House of Commons last month, winning the Makerfield constituency by-election following a sudden vacancy. MPs are scheduled to convene later this month to formalize the nomination of the next party leader and prime minister.
In a bid to balance his stance, Burnham explicitly condemned the October 7, 2023 attack led by Hamas against southern Israel, and also joined in condemning a recent rise in antisemitic attacks across the UK.
While Burnham’s sharp criticism of Israeli policy marks a clear shift away from the more cautious language used by Starmer’s government, political analysts note it is unlikely to satisfy the many pro-Palestinian activists and voters in the UK who have long criticized Britain’s close, decades-long ties to Israel.
Notably, Burnham stopped short of endorsing the global consensus that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a designation already recognized by the United Nations, dozens of leading human rights organizations and hundreds of international human rights experts. More than 73,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s military campaign. On the question of genocide, Burnham only said that mounting evidence points to potential war crimes having been committed, adding that determinations on legal labels should be left to international judicial bodies rather than elected politicians.
That position echoes longstanding UK policy, even as the International Criminal Court (ICC) went forward in November 2024 to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, charging both with crimes against humanity committed against the population of Gaza. A 2025 investigation by Middle East Eye uncovered that former British Foreign Secretary David Cameron privately threatened ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan in April 2024, promising to cut British funding and withdraw the UK from the court entirely if it moved forward with the arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye, which provides independent, in-depth coverage of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.