MEE, 9 November 2026 12:18 GMT
In response to ‘Zionism is racism’ motion, Burnham’s party is set to break local cooperation deals with the Greens
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to the media in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, on 4 November 2026 (Kin Cheung/AFP)
The UK Labour Party has signalled its intention to break local co-operation deals with the Green Party over the latter’s “Zionism is racism” motion, passed at the Greens’ conference last month.
Eleven power-sharing agreements with the Greens look set to be terminated, including in Stafford and Warwick councils, where local Green parties have refused to renounce the motion, as demanded by Labour.
Hundreds of thousands of people could be affected as their local councils lose working majorities, with the Labour leadership’s diktat forcing its council groups to either find alternative coalition partners or govern as minority administrations.
Several local coalition agreements have already been ended, with councils being run without a majority in places such as Derbyshire, Havant, and Lewes. Sheffield’s Labour-Green joint administration, which governs over half a million people, is holding on after the two groups reached a last-minute deal on 4 November.
The Labour Party, it appears, has decided that ideological conformity on Israel is more important than the needs of residents.
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The arrogance of this move is striking. Labour spent the best part of three years backing Israel to the hilt, both militarily and politically, as it inflicted genocide on Gaza, only latterly expressing reservations after coming under increasing domestic and international pressure. Now it presumes the right to lecture the Greens about standards of morality and political hygiene, as if it has any claim to the moral high ground.
This also risks backfiring on Prime Minister Andy Burnham personally, given his attempts to put clear daylight between himself and his predecessor, Keir Starmer, on Palestine – for example, by offering an apology for Labour’s handling of Gaza, and imposing limited (and “symbolic”, according to UK diplomats themselves) sanctions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The decision to break local coalition arrangements with the Greens over the Zionism motion has undone much of that carefully calibrated positioning in one fell swoop.
Clear dividing line
Whatever the rhetorical differences under Burnham, the fundamental line in the sand remains the same: criticism of Israeli government policy is permissible up to a point, but challenging the ideology of ethno-religious supremacism that underpins it – Zionism – is beyond the pale.
One thing the Green Party’s motion has done is to draw a clear dividing line. On one side are the Greens, who despite some internal disagreement, have adopted an explicitly anti-Zionist and anti-genocide position; on the other is Labour, still so tied to Israel that it is prepared to tank its own councils rather than sully itself (perish the thought!) by remaining in local coalitions with Green groups that refuse to repudiate the motion.
This is especially revealing when set against the common accusation that supporters of Palestinian national liberation are “obsessed” with the issue.
Labour has made its choice. It is up to the Greens to ensure that voters understand it
In fact, it is Labour that has chosen, perversely, to make adherence to Zionism a litmus test of political purity, even to the point of putting it before the interests of the people it purports to represent – thus jeopardising local services, rather than tolerating an avowedly anti-Zionist coalition partner.
There is a glaring contrast between the energy with which Labour rushes to defend Zionism, and its lethargic response to growing far-right agitation at home. In recent months, the nationalist group Patriot Platform has blockaded the port of Dover; lifeboat charity volunteers have been targeted by fascists for rescuing migrants in the Channel; and in Greater Manchester, Burnham’s old stomping ground, multi-tenant properties and even ordinary family homes have been attacked.
There is no equivalent zeal from Labour in confronting any of this.
Accusations of antisemitism have become a magic button, which the political establishment thinks it can press to destroy challenges from the left. The Greens now find themselves on the receiving end of this treatment, despite being the only British political party with a Jewish leader in Zack Polanski.
Fostering illusions
There is nothing inherently antisemitic about anti-Zionism, and anti-Zionists are typically at pains to distinguish between Zionism and Jewish people; rather, it is Zionists themselves who are always eager to collapse the distinction.
Zionism cannot be placed beyond political contestation or criticism. Its defenders might insist that, theoretically, there are benign variants of Zionism, and that it cannot be considered monolithically racist. But the real-world historical record – one of large-scale ethnic cleansing and mass murder over eight decades – is what counts.
Zionism is, and has been from its inception, a settler-colonial project privileging one ethno-religious group, namely Israeli Jews, over the Palestinians who had lived on that land for millennia prior to the onset of Zionist colonisation.
UK Green motion on Zionism: Why we need to change the conversation
Liberal Zionism, to which the Labour Party still clings, has played a uniquely pernicious role. It has helped to sustain illusions that the Zionist project can somehow be reformed and humanised, while singularly failing to actually do so.
By fostering such illusions, it has bought time, which the Israeli state has used to seize more territory, build more settlements, and displace and kill more Palestinians, culminating in the Gaza genocide. Its aggression and covetousness also extends into occupied southern Lebanon and Syria.
The Greens are in the right, morally as well as politically, and should resist the temptation – along with the demands of certain party grandees, signal-boosted by the media – to capitulate to the smears and row back on the Zionism motion.
Labour has committed what may well prove to be a serious miscalculation, and an act of political self-sabotage – all in defence of Zionism. Even many voters who understand little about Palestine are likely to question why Labour is destabilising their local councils over a foreign policy dispute.
What really sticks in the craw is Burnham’s hypocrisy and opportunism, having come to power promising a break with Starmerism – only to, like Starmer, make support for Zionism an effective red line. His carefully worded apology and sanctions are now shown for what they are: public relations exercises, not a genuine change of course.
Labour has made its choice. It is up to the Greens to ensure that voters understand it.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Tom Blackburn is a writer from Manchester. A founding co-editor of New Socialist, he has written for publications including The Guardian, Tribune and Jacobin.
Tags: burnham, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, politics, UK, Zionism.
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