Starmer’s Possible Successor Has Shifted Left on Israel, Raising Questions in Labour

Andy Burnham, once seen in 2015 as a strong supporter of Labour Friends of Israel, has steadily moved away from that position as the Gaza war dragged on. In those earlier years, he sharply condemned the BDS movement as “evil,” praised Israel as an oasis of civil rights and trade union rights in the Middle East, and described the Balfour Declaration as an example of “British values in action.”

At the time, Burnham looked like a genuine friend of Israel inside Labour, willing to back it even as anti-Israel pressure grew in his party. But unlike the Conservatives, who were openly supportive of Israel’s right to use military force then, Burnham shifted left. He joined 10 leaders of councils in Greater Manchester in calling for an immediate international ceasefire.

He later signed letters demanding immediate recognition of a Palestinian state and condemning Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria. The article says pressure from pro-Palestinian activists and the radical left in his electoral area pushed him step by step toward those positions.

By 21 June 2026, the piece argues, Burnham, a skilled politician who understands the political winds, had turned Israel from a matter of shared values and ideology into a strategic tool in the internal struggle for leadership of the British left.