Andy Burnham has said he is “sorry” about how Labour initially responded to Israel’s actions in Gaza – but he still won’t use the word genocide or support a full arms embargo.​

Andy Burnham has said he is “sorry” about how Labour initially responded to Israel’s actions in Gaza – but he still won’t use the word genocide or support a full arms embargo.​

In a video message on Thursday, he 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.​”

He also falsely suggested that Labour has prevented all British-made arms from being used by Israel’s military. His party, he said, has taken “important steps” that included “restrictions on arms licenses to make sure that no British bombs or bullets can be used by the IDF in Gaza or in the West Bank.”

The Labour government has only suspended around 30 arms licences to Israel out of a total of 350. It continues to allow Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, to operate factories on British soil and continues to allow the sale of components to Israel for F-35 fighter jets, which have been used extensively to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

​Multiple genocide scholars have labelled Israel’s actions a genocide, as have UN experts, while the International Court of Justice has ruled it is plausible that genocide is happening as part of an ongoing case against Israel.

​But Burnham would only go as far as to say that “there’s increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed,” drawing criticism from prominent opponents of Israel’s genocide.

“This is infuriating crap,” journalist Owen Jones wrote on social media. “He knows Israel has committed war crimes on an industrial scale. He’s refusing to say so because it would impose legal obligations on him to actually act.”

Burnham did not mention the UK’s role in providing intelligence to the Israeli military by flying surveillance drones over Gaza.

​He signalled that he would consider banning the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But he did not mention banning services, such as Airbnb rentals. Advocates for a trade embargo say only banning goods would have limited impact.

Burnham also said he supported imposing more sanctions on individuals involved in illegal settlements and the violence in Gaza.

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