{"id":36423,"date":"2026-08-24T06:53:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36423"},"modified":"2026-08-24T06:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:53:33","slug":"burnham-to-face-pressure-at-labour-conference-to-recognise-israels-actions-in-gaza-as-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36423","title":{"rendered":"Burnham to face pressure at Labour conference to recognise Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on Israel<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham<\/a> over Gaza, as the party\u2019s members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel\u2019s actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) plan to ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference<\/a> as prime minister next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The groups are circulating a model motion for Labour members to submit to conference, demanding the government accept the findings of a UN commission of inquiry that\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0has committed genocide in Gaza, and to impose \u201ccomprehensive sanctions\u201d, including a full arms embargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion also demands that ministers impose comprehensive sanctions and ban trade that \u201caids or assists\u201d Israel\u2019s military actions in Gaza or its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, including trade with Israeli settlements<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Andy<\/a>
Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour\u2019s handling of Gaza under Starmer. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Burnham\u2019s refusal to use the term genocide has caused frustration among many Labour<\/a> MPs, not just those on the left of the party. Several MPs told the Guardian they welcomed Burnham\u2019s apology, but wanted him to go further and explicitly \u201cacknowledge Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as a genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime minister has apologised for the party\u2019s handling of Gaza under Starmer\u2019s leadership<\/a>, saying Labour had \u201cnot got it right\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks before he became prime minister, Burnham told the Guardian<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government \u2026 let\u2019s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire. And we must now do more to strengthen our approach.\u201d But he stopped short of describing what was happening on the ground in Gaza as a genocide, saying that while there was \u201cincreasing evidence\u201d of war crimes, it was for the international courts to make that ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK government has signalled that further measures against Israel could be coming. Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, said ministers would set out a \u201ccomprehensive set of measures\u201d after Israel moved ahead with its controversial E1 settlement plans in the occupied West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the run-up to the 2025 party conference, Labour sought to rule out motions on Palestine<\/a> being debated at the conference, which triggered accusations that the party was trying to stifle debate. About 30 motions about Palestine from local parties were struck off last September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the conference went against the then leadership and backed an emergency motion\u00a0proposed by<\/a>\u00a0the Unison union that the Labour government should \u201cemploy all means reasonably available to it to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza\u201d and \u201cfully suspend the arms trade with\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0and the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Labour groups are seeking to force the issue back on the conference floor this year, presenting it as an early test of Burnham\u2019s promise not to \u201cstifle debate\u201d within Labour. Momentum is launching a petition aimed at current and former Labour members and voters, urging the prime minister to stick to the position backed by delegates last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/aug\/23\/andy-burnham-pressure-labour-conference-recognise-israel-actions-gaza-genocide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on Israel Grassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party\u2019s members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel\u2019s actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo. Momentum, Labour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[32202,33922,1737,10003,1510,33923,8847,17576,1362,4935],"class_list":["post-36423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-andy-burnham","tag-british-pm","tag-gaza-2","tag-genocide-2","tag-israel-2","tag-labour-conference","tag-netanyahu-3","tag-palestine-2","tag-uk-2","tag-war-crimes-2","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36424,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36423\/revisions\/36424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}