On the final day of Labour's party conference in 2023, Keir Starmer gave an interview to LBC's Nick Ferrari that would have particularly damaging fallout. Starmer asserted Israel's right to defend itself and appeared to suggest it had “the right” to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians, adding that “everything should be done within international law.” His comments were clipped and shared widely, attracting fury from many on the left.
Starmer's remarks spark backlash and internal divisions
It took Starmer's team a week to clarify his remarks, which they insisted had been misinterpreted. But the damage had been done. Dozens of Muslim councillors threatened to quit the party. In an attempt to heal divisions, Starmer wrote them a letter, but many felt it wasn't enough. The following month, party tensions deepened when Starmer faced a major rebellion over a vote for a ceasefire, with eight frontbenchers quitting, including Jess Phillips.
The row highlighted a deep tension running through Labour for years on a subject with a complicated history. Since its inception, Labour supported the creation of the state of Israel, arguing that a party believing in social justice had to protect a people who had been through the Holocaust. A more critical view of the Israeli government emerged due to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza under hardline rightwing leaders, shifting focus to solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Labour's struggle with Gaza under Starmer
Under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, some justified criticism of Israel's conduct spilled over into antisemitism, with the EHRC finding “unlawful harassment” of Jewish members, though Corbyn denies it was ever tolerated. Some in Labour felt that Starmer – who enforced a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism, forcing out leftwingers including Corbyn – struggled with Gaza partly due to a desire to draw a line between himself and his predecessor.
As Labour won power in 2024, international condemnation of Israel over the horrors inflicted on Palestinian civilians grew. The government struggled to convince the British public it was doing enough. “People just got stuck on that LBC interview. Keir never recovered from it. Whatever we did – and it was a lot – people didn't seem to notice it,” one senior Labour figure said.
Burnham's apology as a 'reset moment'
Labour lost – and has continued to lose – support on its progressive flank, a key part of the electoral coalition that Andy Burnham is now trying to win back with his apology for Labour's initial response to Israel's military action in Gaza, and a promise to put more pressure on the Israeli government. Any action will have to be calibrated with concerns about the potential impact on Jewish communities in the UK, already fearful amid rising antisemitism which Burnham witnessed close up in Manchester.
It wasn't just far-left voters who abandoned the party, or Muslim communities that turned to pro-Gaza independents at the election: it was also young people and middle-class graduates who left for the resurgent Greens. Labour activists across the country report how the issue comes up on the doorstep all the time – at Westminster byelections, in Scotland and Wales, in the English local elections – and has shown no sign of abating as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues.
The hope is that Burnham's ascendancy gives Labour another hearing. “Andy gives us with a real reset moment. It's a tonal shift, more than anything, and how we talk about what's going on in Gaza. Lots of progressive voters left us. This gives us a chance to try to win them back,” one insider said.
But it is unclear, thus far, how much of substance will actually change, with the prime minister-in-waiting simply saying he'll “look at” further sanctions and measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements, or if the shift will be mostly a matter of tone – and whether, in either case, it will be enough to win back those who have moved on.
