Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has refused to call the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
Asked about the violence in an interview with the Guardian, he said: “I can’t judge things of that enormity from where I am as mayor of Greater Manchester.”
He added: “But I do have concerns about the disproportionate nature of what has happened in terms of the destruction, and there has to be a full process of investigation and accountability.”
The world-leading International Association of Genocide Scholars last year declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians there since 7 October 2023 and experts quoted by the BMJ say the actual toll is far higher.
Burnham became a member of Labour Friends of Israel in 2015 and during a Labour leadership bid the same year described the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel as “spiteful”.
He also promised to make Israel his first state visit if he won – calling the country a “democracy that has a long history of protecting minorities and promoting civil rights”.
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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a Small Business Protections Bill meeting at number 10 Downing Street, London, May 19, 2026
ONE of the most disgraceful episodes in the sordid history of the right-wing Labour Together faction was its hiring of professional snoopers to spy on and smear journalists looking into its misdeeds.
Their main target was Paul Holden, author of The Fraud, an immensely detailed exposé of the dishonesty, unscrupulous factionalism and outright illegality which attended Keir Starmer’s rise to power in the Labour Party and the country.
His own privacy and that of his family was rudely violated and absurd allegations about them passed off as fact. APCO, the blundering contractor hired to do this dirty work, extended their scope to also smear Gabriel Pogrund, a Sunday Times reporter who wrote up some of Holden’s findings, and Andrew Feinstein, a professional colleague of Holden who also, not irrelevantly, ran a powerful campaign to unseat Starmer in his Camden constituency in the 2024 election.
Still worse, this report was then submitted to the security services to try to provoke a probe into Russian-inspired hacking, an allegation for which there was not the slightest evidence.
Indeed, Labour Together probably did not believe the claim itself, since the reference to GCHQ was purely part of a media strategy to divert attention from their perhaps conscious failure to declare £730,000 in donations despite repeated official reminders to do so, the subject of Holden’s reporting.
dizzy: This article (read the rest or it) identifies Josh Simons as Labour Together’s director and now the MP abandoning the Makerfield constituency to allow Andy Burnham to challenge Keir Starmer. It all reeks of being sewn-up, deals made, politicians bought for promotion to high office. The central tenet of the in-control Labour Together, McSweeny, Josh Simons, Peter Mandelson, Keir Starmer – and now quite probably Andy Burnham – cabal is that they’re committed Zionists. Epstein was too.
You may have noticed that I am supportive of the Green Party and Zack Polanski. Despite seriously considering joining the Green Party, I have not yet done it and I might actually be a liability. I have also seriously considered joining Your Party but can’t see that happening now unfortunately. I probably won’t ever join a political party and expect that some of you can understand why.
The question is to what extent should the Green Party oppose Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election. I agree with Roger Hallam that the Labour Party is finished and should be opposed without holding back. The concern is that Greens actions could facilitate a Reform win. I raise three points:
Firstly, it is the Labour Party insisting that Andy Burnham fights and wins an election to participate in a leadership challenge. It is Labour Party rules and the Labour Party NEC can change those rules if it was so minded.
Secondly, so what if Burnham loses to Reform? it has been clear for years that Starmer & Co’s preferred successor is Wes Streeting. There is no certainty that Andy Burnham will defeat Streeting in a leadership contest and there are suggestions of dirty tricks already. A Reform win is instead of a win for Reform in a red rosette. So what if Burnham doesn’t get to compete?
Third, Reform’s position is precarious as is Labour’s, things can change drastically during an election campaign and Farage is already on the missing list. A strong campaign by the Green’s would show that they’re taking the fight to Reform and Labour, that they’re serious about gaining power.
A protest outside Woolwich Crown Court where the Palestine Action activists were tried (Photo: Alamy)
Rajiv Menon KC faced proceedings which his chambers said were unprecedented in English legal history
A leading human rights barrister has won his appeal against contempt of court proceedings, which were levelled at him for a closing speech in the trial of Palestine Action activists.
The court of appeal’s ruling on Tuesday in the case of Rajiv Menon KC comes as it has also emerged that four of the defendants found guilty in a retrial can be sentenced as terrorists.
Three court of appeal judges found that the trial judge, Mr Justice Johnson, “had no jurisdiction” to refer the case against Menon to the High Court.
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Campaign group Defend Our Juries (DoJ) said: “Rajiv Menon KC did what every defence barrister should be free to do – in discharging his duty to his client: he told a jury the truth about their own rights.”
“The fact that contempt of court proceedings were even brought against a barrister for his closing speech – for the first time in British legal history – should deeply concern everyone who cares about the rule of law,” the group added.
Menon had been accused of violating Johnson’s orders in the first trial of six activists who broke into an Israeli-owned arms factory near Bristol in 2024 at the height of the Gaza genocide.
He barred the lawyers from inviting the jury to disregard the court’s ruling of law or to acquit the defendants on the basis of conscience, known as the principle of jury equity.
Keir Starmer says that he’s banning words and phrases now as well as placards.Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir Starmer confirms that he doesn’t know anything about democracy.
Starmer says that he’s facing “dangerous opponents”, “very dangerous opponents”, “very dangerous” when they are actually simply opponents.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.