Andy Burnham

Burnham must end arms sales to Israel, anti-war campaigners demand after 1,000 days of genocide

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnham-must-end-arms-sales-israel-anti-war-campaigners-demand-after-1000-days-genocide

 Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war, in Gaza City, July 2, 2026

INCOMING PM Andy Burnham must finally put an end to arms sales with Israel, anti-war campaigners demanded today as they marked 1,000 days of genocide in Gaza.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Stop the War Coalition (StWC) and the BDS movement renewed their calls for the government to take a clear stance against Israel as Britain prepares for a new leader.

PSC deputy director Peter Leary said activists should use this “horrifying milestone” and Mr Burnham’s likely crowning as PM to call for an end to economic and political enabling of the genocide.

He told the Morning Star: “As Britain braces for a new Prime Minister, we must use this horrific landmark to reaffirm our demand that the British government finally puts an end to all arms trade with Israel and calls a halt to its ongoing economic and political support for Israel’s crimes.

“One thousand marks a horrifying milestone since the start Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip – 1,000 days in which more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, millions displaced and homes, schools, hospitals and other essential infrastructure destroyed.”

Mr Leary highlighted the ongoing nature of attacks on Palestinians, adding that “despite the so-called ceasefire, that genocide continues with over a thousand Palestinians violently killed by Israel in Gaza since it supposedly took effect.”

Jeremy Corbyn said: “For 1,000 days, Britain has armed and enabled the worst crime of our time.

“Keir Starmer may have gone, but his shameful record on Palestine remains. 

“This issue is not going away – and we will carry on for as long as it takes until we have exposed the full scale of the British government’s complicity in genocide.”

…

Morning Star article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnham-must-end-arms-sales-israel-anti-war-campaigners-demand-after-1000-days-genocide

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Continue ReadingBurnham must end arms sales to Israel, anti-war campaigners demand after 1,000 days of genocide

Morning Star Editorial: Why Burnham needs pressing on the Palantir problem

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-burnham-needs-pressing-palantir-problem

 NHS staff blockade the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of its contract with Palantir, which supplies advanced technology to Israel’s military, April 3, 2024

ANDY BURNHAM is not “minded” to grant contracts to CIA-linked tech firm Palantir, we learn from Westminster briefings this week.

The Makerfield MP’s impending coronation leaves us in a strange transitional period where his reported preferences are the stuff of gossip, rather than policies being demanded as the price of support. He has delivered a pitch to the nation of sorts: but no questions were taken, and pinning the PM-to-be down is much harder in the absence of a leadership contest.

…

[T]reating Burnham’s premiership as a foregone conclusion allows him to be troublingly vague.

His allies can reassure the left that he isn’t keen on Palantir, citing his record as Manchester mayor in which role he never awarded it a contract; he himself avoids any specific commitments either on future contracts or — significantly — existing ones.

…

Thiel is a plutocrat as sinister as Elon Musk, with whom he shares an upbringing in apartheid South Africa: an advocate of “post-democracy,” arguing that democracy is incompatible with human (by which he largely means corporate) freedom and, also like Musk, pitching his own tech companies as future mechanisms of rule.

Palantir’s facilitation of horrific racist policing methods in the US, and still more horrific war crimes by the Israeli military, is well known but cancelling its contracts is not simply a question of ethics.

We have to question the idea that companies as powerful as this provide services on a politically neutral basis, given their founders are explicitly hostile to public services as such.

…

It’s good that Burnham is not “minded” to favour Palantir, but a comprehensive rejection of outsourcing policies which now threaten democracy itself is what’s required.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-burnham-needs-pressing-palantir-problem

dizzy: Reading the whole Editorial is recommended.

There are competing narratives on Burnham’s approach to Palantir. Apart from or possibly above anything else, reports that Palantir’s system has apalling performance even after optimisation should be adequate and sufficient to abandon Palantir in the NHS.

Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting – who recently resigned as health secretary – has said that Palantir is “absolutely critical to the future of the NHS.”

But a briefing prepared for NHS England senior leaders in February said that Palantir’s NHS platform is eight to ten times slower at analysing data than the current NHS tool in use.

“Processing time is reported as taking 4-5 minutes compared to 30 seconds [in the current system]” the briefing states, even after making “optimisation” changes to speed it up.

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Why Burnham needs pressing on the Palantir problem

Greens urge Burnham to cut energy bills before winter

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/greens-urge-burnham-cut-energy-bills-winter

 Andy Burnham delivers a speech at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, to pledge to give Britain the “circuit-breaker it needs” while unveiling his plans for devolution and the economy, June 29, 2026

THE Green Party called on prospective prime minister Andy Burnham yesterday to cut energy bills by £150 before winter by shifting policy costs off household electricity bills and onto general taxation.

Zack Polanski’s party said a wealth tax should partly fund policies including the warm homes discount, which are currently funded through electricity bills and account for nearly 10 per cent of domestic electricity charges.

Ofgem’s price cap rose by 13 per cent yesterday to £1,862 a year for the average household, with forecasters expecting prices to remain high this winter.

Cornwall Insight predicted a typical household would face a bill of £1,849 from October.

After Chancellor Rachel Reeves moved some policy costs onto general taxation in November’s budget, the Greens urged Mr Burnham and his new chancellor to do the same for the remaining five policies funded through bills, saving around £120 a year on average.

Removing energy debt servicing costs from bills could save a further £35 a year.

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/greens-urge-burnham-cut-energy-bills-winter

Andy Burnham says that he doesn't have any answers.
Andy Burnham says that he doesn’t have any answers.
Continue ReadingGreens urge Burnham to cut energy bills before winter

Morning Star Editorial: Burnham’s promise of ‘change’ will be judged on what comes next

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnhams-promise-change-will-be-judged-what-comes-next

 Andy Burnham delivers a speech at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, to pledge to give Britain the “circuit-breaker it needs” whilst unveiling his plans for devolution and the economy, June 29, 2026

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The lack of detail justifies caution for the left. “Greater public control” stops short of renationalisation of core sectors, a minimum requirement to stop the fleecing of the British people, water pollution and the protection of vested interests in fossil fuels.  

Reindustrialisation will not happen by osmosis, nor will it be possible to deliver without a national industrial strategy and substantial public investment.  

Regeneration dependent on the “public/private partnership” redolent of the Blair/Brown governments is likely to deliver the same PFI rip-off currently impoverishing the NHS and education. The power that Burnham wishes to devolve will be largely in the hands of directly elected mayors who will have the power to over-rule local authorities with minimal scrutiny or accountability between elections. In turn these mayors will be vulnerable to corporate lobbying, especially from a construction sector which has driven large-scale council estate and town centre demolition and redevelopment in the face of huge community opposition.

While the implied devolution of the “Whitehall machine” to local government may be a good thing, what will it mean for civil servants and quango employees, thousands of whose jobs may be redeployed around the country?

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A new programme to build council homes at scale while welcomed needs to answer how it will be delivered given the lack of design and build expertise in local authorities and over-reliance on large-scale private developers who are entirely profit-driven. Will the emphasis shift from demolition to refurbishment and retrofitting the existing stock and empty homes to bring them back into use?  

The trade union movement and wider left must now pile on the pressure to ensure the lack of detail is not some devilish portent, but a promise of an end to neoliberalism as the first step to socialist renewal.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnhams-promise-change-will-be-judged-what-comes-next

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Burnham’s promise of ‘change’ will be judged on what comes next