DURING the early months of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Andy Burnham emerged as one of the main Labour figures calling for a ceasefire.
Burnham has been cleared to run in the Makerfield by-election, the date of which is still to be confirmed, but could see him return to Westminster and challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.
The Greater Manchester Mayor joined London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in saying they had “profound concerns” over the mounting death toll in Gaza and called for urgent humanitarian aid to be allowed into the territory.
In October 2023, weeks after Israel’s attacks on Gaza, he said there should be a ceasefire “by all sides” and called for captives to be released unharmed.
But over the years, Burnham’s position has shifted and he has links to Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).
In 2015, when he unsuccessfully ran for the Labour leadership against Jeremy Corbyn, Burnham told a LFI hustings event that he opposed anti-Israel boycotts, which he described as “spiteful”, and that his first foreign trip as leader would be to Israel.
He also said that the Balfour Declaration represented “an example of British values in action” and said that Israel is a “democracy that has a long history of protecting minorities and promoting civil rights”.
Former Labour MP, and now Your Party MP, Zarah Sultana described Burnham as a “Zionist” over the comments in May 2026.
He has been a member of the LFI since at least that year. The group describes Israel as the “historic homeland” of the Jewish people and advocates for a two-state solution.
Burnham’s former principal advisor Jennifer Gerber was appointed director of LFI in August 2010.
In March 2015, he called Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election as Israeli prime minister “depressing”, adding that he had been elected on a pledge to build more settlements and Palestine would “need more international support”.
In July that year, Burnham called for an “end to occupation and illegal settlement building by the Israelis” and an end to the “rocket and terror attacks by the terrorist group Hamas”.
“Labour recognises that the settlements and their continued expansion remain key obstacles to resolving the conflict," he said.
The Greater Manchester Mayor is also a supporter of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu). In a video from the group’s March 7 Iftar, Burnham said he would “always be grateful” to Caabu for facilitating a 2012 visit to the West Bank with Labour Friends of Palestine.
“We looked at the youth justice system, some of the issues there, some of the unfairnesses there, and it is still very much in my mind, and it did what the organisation said it would do, advanced understanding of the issues in the region,” Burnham said.
Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 2023, Burnham said in a statement condemning the “appalling attacks” by Hamas and said Israel had the right to “defend itself, and protect its citizens, in line with international law”.
In July 2025, Burnham urged residents, businesses and institutions across Greater Manchester to rally behind UK-Med, a Manchester-based frontline medical charity providing critical, life-saving work in Gaza.
“The suffering of the people of Gaza is beyond words, with many living without the most basic essentials and often without access to medical care,” he said in a video.
