Jewish groups push back against likely next UK PM Burnham over Israel comments

Britain’s Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council on Friday expressed “significant concerns” over comments by Andy Burnham, expected to be the UK’s next prime minister, about Israel.

In a video posted to social media on Thursday, Burnham said Britain must do more to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and that it must bar the sale of weapons that Israel will use in the West Bank and Gaza.

“It’s completely unacceptable that innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed,” he said. “That there’s still a humanitarian crisis with too little aid getting in, and that the Israeli military continues to expand the area it controls in Gaza. We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.”

In response, the two Jewish organizations in a joint statement urged UK leaders to “show the utmost care in their rhetoric in relation to the conflict,” noting the recent surge of antisemitism in the UK.

“Antisemitism cannot be confronted without addressing all its drivers,” the statement said

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“In today’s Britain, this includes Islamist, far-left and far-right extremists who go beyond criticism of the Israeli government to a place of hatred directed at Jews and Israelis,” the statement said.

“These voices build on distorted or one-sided portrayals of the situation in Gaza and its causes, and ceaseless attempts to single out the world’s only Jewish state.”

"In a country in which antisemitism has become more normalised, more extreme and more violent, we call on our leaders to show the utmost care in their rhetoric in relation to the conflict."

Our joint statement with the @BoardofDeputies, responding to Andy Burnham's remarks… pic.twitter.com/0MZqb1M8oh

— Jewish Leadership Council (@JLC_uk) July 10, 2026

As mayor of Greater Manchester during the Heaton Park attack, Burnham “knows first hand the links between hatred of Israel, antisemitic extremism and deadly violence against British Jews,” the statement continued.

The groups were referring to a deadly attack last fall, when a 35-year-old jihadist, who’d pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, opened fire at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

The UK has seen a surge of antisemitic incidents — including shooting, stabbing, and arson attacks — since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacres and hostage-takings in Israel set off the Gaza war.

The Board of Deputies and JLC said they look forward to discussing these concerns with Burnham and his team in the near future.

Burnham, who recently re-entered Parliament, is expected to be the only candidate who will run in internal Labour Party elections to replace outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who recently announced that he will step down.

Since Starmer took office in July 2024, his Labour government has sanctioned Israeli ministers accused of fueling settler violence in the West Bank, suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and formally recognized a State of Palestine. But many supporters of the Palestinians say he has not gone far enough.

In his remarks this week, the 56-year-old Burnham stopped short of accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — a charge openly levied by the UK’s Green Party — but said there was “increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed.”

Israel says it follows international law in all its military campaigns and rejects all accusations that it has targeted civilians, noting its use of evacuation warnings, its facilitation of humanitarian aid, and Hamas’s practice of fighting from civilian areas.

Agencies contributed to this report