Having maintained a near-total silence on Labour’s policy in relation to Palestine since he began his open campaign for the leadership, Andy Burnham has now broken his omerta with an “apology” for the party’s past failures.
One must presume his advisers made clear that a shift on Palestine was crucial to win back the voters whose desertion was key to precipitating British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ignoble removal from office.
If they are earning their salaries, they should have pointed to recent opinion polling, which revealed that Labour is losing more voters to parties of the left than the right. More than half of voters who switched to other leftist or centrist parties said that Labour’s policy on Palestine was a factor.
Among those who are still members of the Labour Party, a poll released in June by Save the Children UK and other groups showed overwhelming support for a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements (87 percent) and a suspension of all arms sales to Israel (78 percent).
In addition, 58 percent said policy on Palestine was a crucial factor in their view on who should lead the party. There is thus a clear demand for a fundamental shift - and this is not new.
