BRITAIN’S PRIME MINISTER-IN-WAITING Andy Burnham has said the Labour Party “got it wrong” in the early stages of the war in Gaza.

The news comes as dozens of Labour lawmakers are set to formally nominate the Labour veteran to succeed Keir Starmer as party leader.

In a video posted to his Instagram account, Burnham said: “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that.”

“The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” he added.

“Labour’s initial response to the treatment of Gaza caused huge hurt. We got it wrong and I am sorry for that,” he wrote in the caption.

The video was part of a series where Burnham answered questions asked of him.

He described the killings and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the Israeli military’s expansion of the areas it controls in Gaza, as “unacceptable”.

Burnham also condemned the actions of Hamas on 7 October, and the increase in antisemitic incidents in the UK.

“We’ve got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” he said.

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The former mayor of Manchester is tipped to succeed Starmer, who announced his resignation on 22 June.

Since Starmer took office in July 2024, his Labour government has been criticised for not going far enough to protect Palestinians. A poll indicated some voters have abandoned Labour for the Green Party, whose leader has said Israel is committing genocide.

In June, a UN inquiry found that Israel is continuing to commit genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza through the deliberate killing of children.

A previous report from the UN’s independent international committee of inquiry focusing on Palestine and Israel, published last year, concluded that Israel had committed genocide against the population of the besieged Palestinian territory.

In today’s video Burnham said some important steps have been taken, but the UK was “too slow to call for a ceasefire”.

“We must now do more to strengthen our approach,” he added. 

“Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, killing innocent Palestinians. We’re seeing a surge in settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the continued expansion of illegal settlements displacing Palestinian communities. And Netanyahu’s government is clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible.”

Starmer’s government sanctioned Israeli ministers accused of fuelling settler violence in the West Bank, suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and formally recognised a State of Palestine.

Burnham said the government must now consider further sanctions against those involved in the violence in Gaza, and also measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements.

He also said there is “increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed”, but said this up to international courts to determine.

In 2025 an independent United Nations commission said that Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of seeking to exterminate Palestinians.

With additional reporting from AFP.