When Andy Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer as prime minister on July 20, he inherited a Labour Party deeply divided over Gaza. During the leadership campaign, Burnham did something Starmer never did: he apologized.
Burnham said in a July 9 interview that Labour had not gotten it right on Gaza. He said Britain had been too slow to demand a ceasefire, proposed additional sanctions on Israelis involved in settlement violence, and suggested the government should consider prohibiting trade in goods from Israeli settlements.
One week into his premiership, has he followed through?
The early signs are mixed. Burnham has maintained Britain’s commitment to NATO and the nuclear deterrent, core Starmer policies he never challenged. On Gaza specifically, his first week was consumed by a different overseas crisis: his first foreign leader meeting was with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who visited London to discuss the war with Russia.
On Israel-Palestine, the action so far has been mostly rhetorical. Burnham’s cabinet appointments include figures who broadly share his view that Britain should take a firmer line on settlement goods and sanctions. But no concrete policy changes have been announced. The government has not introduced new sanctions legislation, and the trade prohibition on settlement goods remains a proposal, not a policy.
The prime minister faces competing pressures. The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council welcomed his commitments on antisemitism but expressed concern that his presentation did not sufficiently address Hamas. Pro-Palestinian groups, meanwhile, criticize him for refusing to call Israel’s bombardment of Gaza a genocide, a position he says is for international courts, not politicians, to decide.
The political math is brutal. Labour relies on both Jewish voters concerned about antisemitism and a large Muslim population angry about the party’s previous position on Gaza. Burnham’s balancing act, apology without action and sanctions without legislation, reflects a government trying to hold both constituencies together while managing a dozen other crises.
The question is whether his Gaza apology was a genuine shift in policy or a campaign move that will be forgotten once the domestic agenda takes full priority. Burnham entered office promising a new political model focused on decentralizing power, building housing, and ending rough sleeping. On that agenda, Gaza is a distraction, not a priority.
The Guardian reported this week that Burnham wants to look inward, but that the world keeps forcing him to look outward. The test will come when the question is no longer what he said during the leadership race, but what his government actually does.