ANDY Burnham has been urged to “finally end” Britain’s complicity with the genocide in Gaza if he becomes prime minister.
The Labour MP, who is widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer potentially within weeks, must bring in a “full and watertight arms embargo” against Israel if he comes to power, the Scottish Greens have said.
The former Greater Manchester mayor is under intense scrutiny over his lack of a foreign policy programme despite being inches from becoming the next prime minister.
While he was among the first senior Labour figures to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, he earlier this month declined to say whether Israel had perpetrated a genocide in the Palestinian territory.
Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay said: “Keir Starmer did a lot of things wrong, but his most shameful legacy was his decision to support and then directly enable Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
“For years, some of the worst war crimes of this century have been inflicted in front of the world by an extremist Israeli government, and Keir Starmer’s response was to follow the Tories in arming them.
“There is no crime worse than genocide, and Labour’s record has been truly shocking. It was one of the worst and most immoral foreign policy decisions since the Iraq war, which Andy Burnham supported.
“If he wants to move on from one of the least popular governments in living memory then Andy Burnham must finally end that complicity. That has to mean finally implementing a full and watertight arms embargo against Israel and ending all political and military support for its government.”
The UK’s arms embargo against Israel has been criticised for covering only around 30 licences of around 350 arms exports to the country.
Labour’s inaction on Gaza, and Starmer’s perceived hesitancy to criticise Israel, have been cited as a factor in the party haemorrhaging support since the last General Election and before.
Mackay added: “All over Scotland and the UK there are people who will never vote Labour again because they are so disgusted by what Keir Starmer and his colleagues have done to Gaza and how they criminalised thousands of people for protesting against them.
“People deserve the truth. That is why we must also have a full public investigation into the role of the UK government and UK-made arms in the conflict.”
He has also failed to respond to a petition calling for him to launch an inquiry into Britain’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, launched by Jeremy Corbyn.
The former Labour leader said previously: “The Government has been complicit in this widespread suffering, and has wilfully attempted to block our efforts to expose the truth.”
Burnham is also under increased scrutiny because of his appointment of New Labour-era former minister James Purnell as his chief of staff, should he take the reins in No 10.
Purnell was previously a chair of the group Labour Friends of Israel and was most recently CEO of elite lobbying firm Flint Global.
The consultancy group, which also counts Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff Liz Lloyd among its partners, has worked with companies such as Uber, Amazon, BP and Airbnb, according to openDemocracy.
The Flint Global website advertises how it provides advice to “regulated water companies and major institutional investors on their strategic and investment decisions” and energy companies on “how to positively shape the policy debate and manage regulatory risk”.
