A decision by prospective UK prime minister Andy Burnham to appoint former head of Labour Friends of Israel James Purnell as his chief of staff has sparked consternation amid Israel’s ongoing wars in the Middle East , as speculation grows about the policies Burnham may adopt if he becomes the leader of the Labour Party and the country.
Purnell, who chaired Labour Friends of Israel between 2002 and 2004, reportedly resigned as CEO of Flint Global - a lobbying firm with close links to tech giants Amazon and Apple , as well as the arms industry - in order to take up the role.
Purnell also had close links to former former Prime Minister Tony Blair, having served as work and pensions secretary under him. Like Burnham, he voted in favour of the 2003 Iraq War.
The appointment marks Burnham’s first major staffing decision ahead of his expected move into Downing Street next month and has reportedly been met with suspicion on the Labour left. A left-wing MP who supports Burnham told The Guardian that the decision was "a very bad sign".
Green Party leader Zack Polanski offered much stronger criticism, saying the decision "rings alarm bells".
"As chair of Labour Friends of Israel, Purnell attacked left-wing critics of the Israeli government as 'antisemitic' before going on to work for Flint Global, a lobbying firm representing major corporate interests, including defence industry clients," Polanski told The New Arab .
“It is now up to Andy Burnham to clarify whether he has the courage to break with Labour's catastrophic and illegal foreign policy, or whether he intends to lead his party even further into the moral abyss that has driven so many voters away,” he added.
However, Chris Doyle, the Director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) urged caution, telling The New Arab that it was too early to draw conclusions on whether Purnell would try to take a potential Burnham government in a pro-Israel direction.
“Much has been made of his likely presumed appointment of James Purnell as his chief of staff. What I would stress here is that one should not jump to too many conclusions at this stage. [James Purnell] was chair of Labour Friends of Israel a long time ago and many people’s views of Israel and Palestine changed, not least as a result of the genocide [in Gaza],” Doyle said. What direction will Burnham take? During his by-election campaign in Makerfield, Burnham refused to call Israel’s war on Gaza - which has killed more than 73,000 people and displaced the majority of the population - as a genocide, instead calling Israel’s actions "disproportionate".
Like Purnell, he was previously a member of Labour Friends of Israel, calling the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement “spiteful".
Polanski said that it was now Burnham’s duty to provide clarity on this issue.
“It was incredibly disappointing to see Andy Burnham maintain Labour's denialist line and refuse, when asked, to say that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. He claimed he couldn't ‘judge things of that enormity from where [he was] as Mayor of Greater Manchester’. Now he's in Westminster and set to become Prime Minister, he must make clear whether he intends to end Britain's enabling of genocide and uphold our obligations under international law,” he told The New Arab. Doyle, however, pointed to Burnham's past engagement with the issue, including a 2012 CAABU-Labour Friends of Palestine delegation to the West Bank in which Doyle accompanied him, saying "he was able to see first hand how the Israeli occupation impacted on the daily lives of Palestinians and controlled all their lives and futures, so I’ve no doubt about his general sympathies on this issue – that he understands the oppression that is going on ."
“I think the question will be, if he does become prime minister, will he stand up to the inevitable pressures that will be placed upon him not least from the United States to somewhat weaken some of the policy positions we hope he will take,” Doyle added.
Doyle added that CAABU has called on Burnham to implement a full ban on financial dealings with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, ensure unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza, and allow entry for journalists and human rights investigators.
He said he hoped Burnham would change the UK’s approach towards Israel, which he described as having been broadly accommodating of "grave and continuous breaches of international law".