Badenoch fears lack of UK co-operation with Israel amid shift under Burnham
Helen Corbett, Press Association Political Correspondent
Kemi Badenoch has said she is worried about a lack of UK co-operation with Israel under Andy Burnham amid a shift in stance on Gaza.
New Prime Minister and Labour leader Mr Burnham recently apologised for his party’s initial response to the country’s actions in Gaza and said Labour must “do better”.
His newly appointed Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, said this week that Israel had “fallen short” of the standards the UK should expect.
Conservative Party leader Mrs Badenoch told a press conference: “I think that yet again this is a Government and a Prime Minister and a Defence Secretary and even a Foreign Secretary that have the wrong priorities.”
Mrs Badenoch added: “This excessive focus on what’s going on in Israel and Palestine is because that’s what their backbenchers are concerned about.”
In her former role as trade secretary when the Tories were in government, she said she had security briefings that show how important the relationship with Israel is.
The Tory leader said: “Whether people like it or not, there are British citizens alive today because of intelligence that Israel gave us.
“I am very worried about a lack of co-operation because this Government wants to please its backbenchers.
“They need to do what is right for the country, not what is right for the Labour Party.”
Mr Burnham sought to draw a line under previous tensions within Labour over the conflict in a video message earlier this month.
He said the UK should be “clear in our criticism of what has happened in Gaza”, while also condemning Hamas’s attack on October 7 2023 and subsequent acts of antisemitic violence in Britain.
While he suggested a government under his leadership would go further, he stopped short of accusing Israel of perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians, as some Labour MPs have.
He has also backed further sanctions against Israeli figures involved in settler violence.
Mr Streeting said on Wednesday that Israel had “fallen short” of the standard the UK holds itself to, which he said should also be applied to Israel.
He said his concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank were known.
He has previously said he sought to push for further action as Sir Keir Starmer’s health secretary, a position he later resigned from.
In private messages to Lord Mandelson that were released earlier this year, Mr Streeting backed sanctions against Israel, rather than individual ministers, and for the UK to join France in recognising Palestine as a state.
The UK eventually did recognise Palestine under Sir Keir.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Get more trusted Welsh news
Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.
Isreal lobby groups in the Cons upset then. Labour should cut ties.
Isreal will not remove netenyahu and the likes of Gvir then we sanction Isreal.
‘Badenoch fears lack of UK co-operation with Israel amid shift under Burnham’.
She says this like it’s a bad thing.
Why would the UK want to be linked to a murderous, apartheid, regime who sees Arabs as sub-human, cannon fodder?
We should cut all ties to this oppressive regime (not Jewish people, just the regime).
Why would any sensible government want to be in any form of partnership with a genocidal evil zionist government?