As for the domestic political context, plenty in the Labour movement and the wider British left have long clamoured for this to happen.
Around 140 Labour MPs went public with this demand at the beginning of the summer, and Burnham was explicit in his criticism of his predecessor’s approach to the Middle East, writing in July: “Labour’s initial response to the treatment of Gaza caused huge hurt. We got it wrong and I am sorry about that.”
In recent years Labour has haemorrhaged support in many communities with a significant Muslim population, and so for a new Labour prime minister seeking to lure as many on the left – and beyond – under Labour’s umbrella, this diplomatic intervention makes sense.
But the reaction of the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, writing in the Jewish Chronicle, external, is a reminder of another challenge for Burnham, both political and societal.
“Once again, British Jews find themselves warning their own government that its relentless demonisation of the world’s only Jewish state risks fanning the flames of antisemitism here at home,” Badenoch said.
Later, the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said it was “truly a dark day for Britain’s Jews”.
Last October, as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham was the local figurehead during the grim reality of an attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the city.
Miliband has sought to address concerns about what Badenoch calls “demonisation” by making his view clear that “holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitism, pure and simple”.
But Labour figures are keenly aware that at points in the last decade, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party’s relationship with many British Jews was dire, a situation Starmer sought to rectify as a priority in the early years of his leadership.
In other words, the party’s recent relations with many British Jews has been fragile for some time – and many in the community already felt vulnerable after last year’s attack in Manchester, and the later arson attacks on Jewish community ambulances in north-west London in the spring.
Burnham has to manage that anxiety while making the case for the changing stance the government is announcing, in the weeks before he meets many of his international counterparts for the first time.
