Andy Burnham is not the answer
With Keir Starmer in meltdown mode, Andy Burnham is being presented as Labour’s saviour. Last time he stood for leader, in 2015, Burnham promised that his first trip overseas would be to the Israeli settler-state. This would be his third attempt at securing the top job at Labour, but does Burnham really represent a change from the failings of Starmer, or simply more of the same?
Burnham’s Friends of Israel
Whilst serving in the last Labour administration, Andy Burnham’s principal adviser was Jennifer Gerber. In 2010, Gerber was appointed director of the lobby group Labour Friends of Israel, which she went on to lead for the next decade.
In 2016, then Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham was one of the Labour MPs who “flocked” to support Labour Friends of Israel under Gerber’s leadership. He was joined by then Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry; Jess Phillips, now sitting on a wafer-thin majority in Birmingham Yardley; and Dan Jarvis, amongst others.
Gerber previously led Progress, a Labour Party pressure group reportedly founded by Epstein-associate Peter Mandelson. The group received millions from David Sainsbury, a major backer of the infamous Labour Together think tank, and were also funded by pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
In 2021, Progress merged with Policy Network, another Peter Mandelson operation, and changed their name to Progressive Britain. The group is currently led by Adam Langleben, a former national secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement.
When Jennifer Gerber stepped down from Labour Friends of Israel in 2020, she praised Keir Starmer for “[committing to] fully rooting out the … Israel obsession in the party.” In his first meeting with LFI as party leader, Starmer pledged to travel to Israel with the group.
At the time, Keir Starmer thanked LFI for “the crucial role they play in the Labour Party”. Now, Andy Burnham, a parliamentary supporter of LFI who voted for Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq, seeks to depose him.
Past leadership bids
Burnham has tried to become Labour leader twice before. In 2015, his leadership bid was supported by Dan Jarvis, another parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel. Jarvis has previously been funded by Martin Taylor, a major backer of Morgan McSweeney’s Labour Together, who also gave £95,000 to Keir Starmer’s 2020 leadership bid.
Andy Burnham’s 2015 leadership campaign received over £130,000 in private donations. One of his funders was Michael Sternberg, who has also financed Labour’s current Courts Minister, Sarah Sackman. Sackman, a key supporter of David Lammy’s proposals to restrict jury trials, previously worked as a judicial clerk at the Israeli Supreme Court.
Sternberg also gave £5000 to Labour’s current Middle East Secretary, Hamish Falconer. Falconer received another £5000 from Labour Together Limited, and £13,900 from Mike Craven, a former press officer to Tony Blair and current Labour Together board member.
Falconer also received £4600 from a group called “SME 4 Labour”. In the run up to the 2024 general election, with a view to helping Keir Starmer secure a parliamentary majority, SME 4 Labour held a fundraising dinner in London with Jeffrey Epstein’s “best pal” Peter Mandelson.
For the 2024 election, SME 4 Labour had identified Scotland as a “crucial” target. Labour’s parliamentary candidate (and now MP) for Rutherglen Michael Shanks received £4000 from Sternberg. Shanks was also one of several Scottish Labour MPs who received £10,000 from Labour Together to fund their electoral campaigns.
Another funder of Burnham’s 2015 leadership campaign was Howard Borrington. For 22 years, ending with his retirement in 2024, Borrington was Director of UK Government Affairs at arms firm MBDA, the self-declared “world leader in missiles and missile systems”. Before that, he spent almost 16 years at BAE Systems.
Burnham won’t mop up the bloodbath
In 2010, Burnham stood against Ed Miliband and lost. In 2015, Burnham promised that, if he won, he “would involve Jeremy [Corbyn] in my team from the outset.” As recently as February, he was publicly backing Keir Starmer. Burnham will say anything to get into power.
After the bloodbath of last week’s council, Scottish, and Welsh elections, it is clear that Keir Starmer has lost any mandate to rule, but do not expect any stronger moral fibre from Andy Burnham.
Featured image via the Canary
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Great article setting out Burnhams collusion with Zionism and the Labour Right. Also his failure to convince Labour members that he is leadership material.
Labour are in a death spiral that might only reverse if Labour drops austerity, racist scapegoating and support for genocide regardless of who replaces Starmer.
Clive Lewis on Politics Live urging “adults in the room” deferment of a leadership challenge until September. The remaining Left in Labour are politically bankrupt and part of the problem.
Good points, Jody. The only thing Labour can offer now is a revolving door with one compromised shyster after another.
Agreed. Labour is so rotten there isn’t a clean pair of hands anywhere in sight.
Clive Lewis is your Man.
The heart of the Labour Party establishment is bought-and-paid-for with Zionist money.
Labour Friends of Israel !!!
Who voted for that ?
Burnham is clearly not the answer … But who is ?
Labour is dead.
A good article by Jody.
This post and its replies makes me think… 🤔
Don’t forget that the Zionist Elite own the media. The same media we get all our information from. So if the media are slating Keir Starmer then how can we believe that Keir Starmer is working for the Zionists as it’s the Zionists that are attacking them using their media platforms. I feel it is more plausible that Keir is no longer on their side and that’s why they want to get rid of him. Keir did not join the US and Israel to illegally bomb Iran which is similar to the invasion of Iraq using false pretext for war. Keir also banned and sanctioned key Israeli cabinet members from entering the UK. Keir is nationalising the public services and taxing the wealth with wealth taxes and closing tax loopholes. All these should not make Zionist elite very happy.
Even toadies can be booted out, when they are more of a liability than an asset and it looks as though someone more useful is coming along. Perhaps it’s just a matter of his continued blunders and spectacular lack of political awareness, resulting in his appalling poll results.
That isn’t just due to media criticism. He’s not a politician, and he never will be. He acts as though he’s never had any firm vision of why he wanted the job or what he wants to achieve, and he’s just sleepwalking his way through an obstacle course tripping over every snare in his path. The public sense the hollowness in him, and they simply don’t like him.
As far as the Zionist lobby are concerned, that means he has outlived his usefulness.
Keir Starmer isn’t nationalising public services, but rather bringing them under government control whilst still being private,. Not good. Also, the media is owned by the Eostein class, including some Zionists, but these people don’t have a country, nor are Zionists particularly enamoured of Jews or Israel. For them, everything and everyone is a tool. Starmer only ever does what appears to be the right thing when pressure forces his hand. Also, if you look up journalist Matt Kennard, he will show you that when Starmer was insisting he wasn’t supporting the genocide in Gaza, he was lying because US planes were still being allowed to take off from British air bases. The elitists have no loyalty to anyone or anything exccept profit, and when folks like Starmer become a problem, they are merely replaced by clones, such as Burnham. As for wealth taxes, they’ve been saying this all of my life and I’m no spring chicken. What needs to be done instead, which won’t require wealth taxes, is to prevent obscene profit in the first place and replacew it with a framework that means exccess profit goes back into the economy via jobs for example, rather than hi-tech replacing us.. The economy should belong to the people. The solution is right in front of you – your local council has to enact most of the measures passed down from above, as do your local public services. Tackle them.
Apologies for the typos.
You are absolutely correct here, as soon as the puppets stop playing to their masters a new one must take the throne. Starmer did what was right for the UK by not bowing to “isreals” demands for war, as such he now has had the boot to make way for someone else on the pay roll. I give it a week before, digital ID, vpns bans, more “terror” labels and the like continue to be ushered in under the oppressive zionist regime.
Oh dear. Good piece. I feel cheated.
Without proportional representation, dismissing Labour will ensure that we get a Reform/Restore/Tory government in 2029. It is essential that tactical voting is employed and, if necessary, we hold our noses and vote Labour in some constituencies. This country would take decades to recover from a Reform/Restore government. We can’t let that happen.
Very true. My sisster lives in Makerfield and tells me they are all voting Reform because they think it will destroy Labour. It won’t. The best way to destroy Labour may well be to vote Burnham in. It won’t take long for him to show his true colour, and I don’t think Labour will have anywhere to go after that. The Greens of course are there to usher in Net Zero – no gas and oil, no food imports, no farming, no flying and no shipping. It;s all i the policies, no conspiracy theory required.
Not keen on a former Blair cabinet minister opportunist who is pro-Israel being UK’s next PM. Nothing will change except the PM’s name.
It was unions uniting worldwide that made their governments force South Africa to shun apartheid.
It would take the same union actions to force governments into a Two State solution in Israel/Palestine.
But since Regan and Thatcher smashed the unions and promoted the mega-rich non taxpaying multi-nationals to be the standover-men influencing government policy, that will never happen.
The UK badly needs a leading group of ethical people to unite every great and small union in the UK and from there to finance a new political party that would rejuvenate despairing dispossessed Labour voters. Before it’s too late and before the next election. AI is getting ready to take your jobs and your electricity. Be quick!