Pro-Palestine activists believe there could be a \u201csea change\u201d in the Labour party\u2019s approach to the crisis in the Middle East which could result in the government taking a tougher stance on Israel.<\/p>\n
Campaigners have pointed to the threat posed to Labour by the Green surge<\/a> in the local elections, the likely departure of Keir Starmer from No 10, and new polling which shows an appetite among Labour members for a ban on all arms shipments to Israel.<\/p>\n The relative optimism marks a mood swing for a campaign that has been hit hard by losing successive high court cases, the labelling of Palestine Action as a terrorist group, and the failure of Donald Trump\u2019s Board of Peace<\/a> to progress Palestinian self-rule.<\/p>\n Both of the frontrunners to replace Starmer as UK prime minister, Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, have in the past urged Labour to do more to support Palestine. In the debates so far both have refused to describe Israel\u2019s actions as genocide, although Streeting has accused Israel<\/a> of committing war crimes. He also circulated a dossier from British doctors working in Palestine to cabinet, only to be accused by Starmer, according to an interview in the Observer, of doing so for the document to be leaked.<\/p>\n Neither Streeting nor Burnham have yet detailed what the UK should do differently in Gaza, either unilaterally or in concert, however. In July 2025 Streeting wrote that Israel\u2019s rogue state behaviour justified applying sanctions to the state, \u201cnot just a few ministers\u201d.<\/p>\n The most significant government moves until this week had been the partial suspension of arms exports to Israel in September 2024, and the recognition of Palestine as a state a year later.<\/p>\n Brian Brivati said a Labour leadership election would mean \u2018a major shift\u2019 in the party\u2019s approach. Photograph: Brian Brivati<\/p>\n Brian Brivati<\/a>, a historian and the executive director of the British Palestine Project, is convinced steps will be taken. \u201cThere is a sea change about to happen inside government and it would be extraordinary if there was not, just because so much of the dynamic leads in one direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201c[The former adviser] Morgan McSweeney has gone as Starmer\u2019s gatekeeper in No 10 and he cut his teeth by linking Jeremy Corbyn to antisemitism. The electoral maths is obvious to MPs, including to new-intake MPs, who have woken up to what will happen in their seat after the Greens\u2019 performance in the local elections.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is the contrast between the leadership shown on Ukraine with Palestine, and the failure to uphold international law. The poll of Labour<\/a> party members by Medical Aid for Palestinians released last week showed 87% backing for a ban on trade with illegal settlements, while 78% back a total ban on all arms shipments to Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there is what is happening inside Gaza itself, including more than 900 deaths since the ceasefire and the absolute failure of the Board of Peace to achieve anything in six months. I would have expected Keir Starmer<\/a> in the face of this just to do the bare minimum, but a [party] leadership election will mean a major shift in Labour\u2019s approach, almost regardless of whether it is Burnham or Streeting, or anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n In startling remarks last week, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said Labour had failed the Palestinians<\/a>. After the act of recognition last autumn, the government had lost momentum while \u201cthe Trump peace plan has gone into the sand\u201d, she said. \u201cRecognition was a first step. Where is the second and 10th step?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, said last week that her party had failed the Palestinians. Photograph: House of Commons\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is happening inside Gaza is intolerable yet we tolerate it,\u201d she added. She asked why, with the threat of the West Bank being partitioned in the next two months, the government had not used its convening power to end the deadlock over Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawal.<\/p>\n At an all-day British Palestine Project (BPP) conference last week, Thornberry was heckled when she described herself as a Zionist, but her call for Labour to do more reflects a frustrated mood. Another MP said: \u201cIt\u2019s not just the diplomacy. We have not got the politics of this right.\u201d<\/p>\n The sobering truth about Israeli public opinion was conveyed to the BPP conference by the Israeli pollster Dr Dahlia Scheindlin<\/a>, and much of the day was spent disentangling what a new Labour leader could do to convince Israelis that occupation did not bring security.<\/p>\n The consensus was that possible practical actions were a full trade ban or a ban on the trade of goods made in illegal settlements; the belated publication of a full government response to the international court of justice decision on the illegality of the occupation made in 2024; and urgent steps to deter British and European firms from bidding for tenders for the E1 settlement area, a development that severs the north of the West Bank from the south.<\/p>\n A letter signed by Labour select committee chairs contained some of these ideas, but the government this week instead imposed sanctions on more settler groups, saying it was hard practically to ban illegal settlement trade. Ministers also backed a new international peace fund<\/a> to support grassroots initiatives aimed at building trust between communities.<\/p>\n More broadly, Vincent Fean<\/a>, a former consul general in Jerusalem, said: \u201cEurope has lost diplomatic control of the Palestinian issue to Trump, and it needs to get it back, and Britain should be playing a bigger part in that.\u201d<\/p>\n Activists feel Starmer has been unwilling to reflect how Gaza had become a defining issue for a generation. It is the Greens that have called for the release of Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned Palestinian political leader. Chris Doyle<\/a>, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: \u201cWe seem to have mastered the art of vacuous press releases that express concern, deep concern and then, drum roll, grave concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator, said Labour needed some hard analysis about how Israel\u2019s leaders accrete power. Britain had to be laser-focused \u201con trying to impact what Israel can and cannot do, what Israel can get away with, and what hopefully it can be prevented from doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cCriminalising this or that settler misses the point,\u201d Levy said. \u201cSanctioning [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Israel\u2019s finance minister Bezalel] Smotrich is a badge of pride for them. I have a news alert. They were not going to spend their summer in the Lake District anyway. Eurovision, football, basketball \u2013 those are the things that send signals to Israel.<\/p>\n