Britain’s Next Prime Minister Likely To Pursue a Leftist Agenda on Israel, Immigration

LONDON — The Mancunian who’s waiting to take over as Britain’s prime minister as early as next week appears willing to swing Britain against Israel over Gaza and Hamas.Elected three times as mayor of Greater Manchester, the left-leaning Andrew Burnham has said in interviews that the outgoing prime minister, Keir Starmer, should have adopted a tougher stance against the Jewish state over the war in Gaza. With little experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Burnham has also promised to intensify support for the Palestinians on the West Bank.The extent to which Mr. Burnham, who forged good relations with Manchester’s Jewish community while condemning antisemitic incidents, will really toughen British policy toward Israel is another matter. Will Mr. Burnham fall into the same pattern as Mr. Starmer, who was riding a wave of popularity when his Labor Party captured control of parliament two years ago?Mr. Starmer’s popularity has plummeted in part because of his lax policy toward immigration and his failure to live up to his promise to increase defense spending on the way to bringing the defense budget to 3.5 percent of national output. Mr. Burnham, hoping to remain as prime minister and Labor Party chief at least until the next general election for parliament in 2029, has said he still aims to keep the 3.5 percent promise while the Labor government puts on a show of toughness on Iran.Mr. Starmer, in one of his last acts as prime minister, has designated the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “terrorist threat.” The IRGC, the center of power in Iran, he said, was “involved in threats to life and intimidation on UK soil.” Previously, the Labor government “found that proscribing the IRGC as a terrorist group such as al-Qaeda or Islamic State” was “not operationally advisable or even possible,” according to the Times of London. “Now the new National Security Act seeks to target the evolving way in which hostile states operate by paying proxies to hide their involvement in attacks.”That kind of gesture, though, does not mollify the critics of what may be the most politically explosive issue facing the Labor government, the wave of immigrants. Legally and illegally, immigrants have been arriving at a rate of about 200,000 a year, often provoking loud protests. “Bournemouth Patriots,” said large signs with British flags held aloft outside a hotel in Bournemouth, a picturesque port and resort city on the southern coast. The local newspaper, Daily Echo, quotes a member of parliament from Bournemouth, Jessica Toale, as triumphantly calling the eviction of migrants from the hotel, one of three reserved for them in the city, as “a significant milestone.”Mr. Burnham is expected to want to appeal to the leftist backbone of the Labor Party by advocating a relatively soft policy under which migrants could remain while their cases were processed. Similarly, it’s in order to appeal to Labor’s hard left that he’s vowed “to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.” In a video Mr. Burnham echoed a United Nations report, declaring “It’s completely unacceptable that innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed” while “the Israeli military continues to expand the area it controls in Gaza. “The Times of Israel quotes Britain’s Jewish Leadership Council as expressing “significant concerns.” The statement urged British leaders “to show the utmost care in their rhetoric. While alarming Israel, Mr. Burnham may also have problems dealing with President Trump, who’s already described him derisively as the “extremely liberal…. mayor of a town.”Mr. Burnham, while mayor of Manchester in 2017, called on the then prime minister, Thersa May, to withdraw her invitation to Mr. Trump for a state visit. He would, he said, refuse to meet Mr. Trump “as a matter of principle.” Yet Messrs. Trump and Burnham will have to let bygones be if they are to get along. They could have a chance to catch up as early as the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September.Next, they may get together in mid-November, after the American mid-term elections, at a parley of the G20 nations in Florida. “When Mr Burnham rolls up in New York in September,” said the Independent newspaper, “he will be emboldened to be less deferential than Sir Keir, and more vocal about British interests.”

Britain’s Next Prime Minister Likely To Pursue a Leftist Agenda on Israel, Immigration

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