INCOMING prime minister Andy Burnham has learned nothing from Labour’s “moral cowardice in the face of a genocide”, the SNP have said after he laid out his first major foreign policy pitch but failed to mention Israel, Palestine, or international aid.
Burnham, who appears on course for a coronation as prime minister as he was the only declared candidate when nominations for the next Labour leader opened on Thursday, had written a 1000-word essay in The Times laying out his policies for a “darker world”.
In the piece, Burnham said he would: commit absolutely to the UK’s nuclear weaponry; oversee a “sustained increase” in funding for warfare; boost UK capabilities in AI, shipbuilding, “energetics”, and “quantum”; build closer relationships with European allies; back international law; and be “more open with the public about how and where defence funding is spent”.
However, the Makerfield MP did not mention reductions in the UK’s international aid budget (which has been cut from 0.7% of gross national income in 2021 to 0.3% under Labour) or Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
Brendan O'Hara MP, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson at Westminster, said: "This was Andy Burnham's first foreign policy pitch – the fact that he failed to even mention Gaza is a sign that the Labour Party has learned nothing from their moral cowardice in the face of a genocide.”
He went on: "The Labour Party will forever be morally haunted by Iraq and Gaza – Andy Burnham voted for the war in Iraq and he is now silent on the genocide in Gaza.
“Instead of learning from his devastating mistakes on foreign policy, he seems intent on repeating them.
"This foreign policy pitch isn't a change from the cowardice of Starmer, it is more of the same.”
Later on Thursday, Burnham did address Gaza in an interview with The Guardian, saying that the UK “response has too often not been good enough”. However, he failed to explain how he would do anything different from the current Labour administration beyond “put pressure on the Israeli government” and “strengthen our approach”.
O’Hara added: "It is also telling that Andy Burnham failed to mention the cuts to international development funding which have been slashed by this UK Labour Government – clearly a policy of more of the same applies here too."
Experts have warned that although the aid cuts can save money in the short term, by allowing poverty, instability, and conflict to worsen, reducing these budgets often increases the need for far costlier spending on humanitarian crises, security, and military actions.
Maggie Chapman, the Scottish Green MSP, said that Burnham’s first foreign policy pitch “says a lot about where Labour’s priorities lie”.
“He finds space for more weapons, more military spending and more hard power, but apparently nothing for Gaza, Palestine or the atrocities being carried out with the support and complicity of the UK Government,” Chapman said.
“Labour is reinforcing its positions as the genocide party: a party that talks about international law when it suits them, but stays silent when Palestinian people are being displaced, bombed, burned alive or starved to death.
“Andy Burnham voted for the catastrophic war in Iraq, and this intervention suggests he has learned far too little from one of the most shameful chapters in modern British foreign policy.
“Instead of turning our backs on those in need and stoking the fires of the war machines, Scotland needs a foreign policy rooted in peace, human rights, international law and climate justice. That means an immediate end to arms sales to Israel, sanctions on and trials for those responsible for war crimes, recognition of and solidarity with Palestine, and a permanent ceasefire with a path to peace for the Middle East.”
Burnham’s team did not respond to a request for a response.
It comes with the UK Government facing huge pressure over its two-year failure to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
In July 2024, the ICJ issued an advisory ruling saying that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories like Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank was “illegal” and states like the UK were therefore obliged to “ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law” and to refrain from any dealings relating to occupied Palestinian land.
However, the UK Government has still not introduced a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements or even responded to the ICJ ruling.
Last month, a joint letter signed by 140 MPs including former ministers and all of the Labour chairs of Westminster select committees said there is an “urgent need for accountability and concrete consequences in response to Israel’s violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are spiralling by the day”.
It added: “Settlements – and all the violations which come with them – are sanctioned, incentivised and financially enabled by the Israeli government. In February 2026, it was stated that our UK Labour Government ‘will take concrete steps in accordance with international law to counter settlement expansion and to challenge policies and threats of forcible displacements and annexation’. But since then, the situation has worsened considerably and the government has taken no further action. This is unacceptable.”
