Keir Starmer was complicit in genocide. The next PM must end this.

Dan Williamson is political organiser at Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Keir Starmer will depart 10 Downing Street having been the most unpopular Prime Minister since records began. There are many causes for the antipathy: From his purge of the Labour left and abandonment of his professed principles and pledges, to his slashing of Winter Fuel Payments and indulgence for freebies. But since October 2023, one issue has defined the moral character of Starmer’s leadership above all others: His unrepentant complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In the first weeks of the genocide, as Israel’s annihilation of Gaza began, Starmer was insistent: Israel had the right to act as it did, even as the world witnessed the obliteration of Gaza and its people. He went so far as to say it had a “right” to cut off water and power from the besieged enclave. In the House of Commons, he whipped Labour MPs against supporting a ceasefire, provoking the biggest rebellion his leadership had faced.

Once in office, he set a record for arms exports to Israel, surpassing what even the Conservative government had allowed. He continued spy flights over Gaza, providing Israel with real-time information of its slaughter. He weaponised his background as a human rights lawyer to deny the facts, telling the Commons: “I am well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described [Israel’s genocide] as a genocide.” His government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation and passed new laws to give the police further powers to restrict the right to protest, explicitly targeting Palestine solidarity demonstrations.

Throughout this, the movement for Palestine has remained undaunted. The national marches in London have become the biggest sustained mobilisation Britain has witnessed since the suffragettes and amongst the largest demonstrations for Palestine in the Global North.

Last month, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), alongside our partners in the Vote Palestine coalition, brought this movement into the local elections, asking council candidates to “Pledge for Palestine”. More than 2,200 candidates did so, with more than 600 subsequently getting elected. That is more than 10% of all newly elected councillors.

In Wales, PSC asked candidates for the Senedd to make a pledge too, explicitly supporting the Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment (BDS). The commitment was made by almost 40% of the newly elected Senedd Members, including the majority of the new Welsh government’s Cabinet.

The movement was taken to the heart of the Labour Party, with Labour members and trade union affiliates voting at its 2025 annual conference to accept that Israel has committed genocide and demanding comprehensive sanctions, including a full arms embargo. Having failed to block the efforts on procedural grounds, Starmer ignored the vote and continued his government’s complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Although he has strained every sinew to stand foursquare behind his genocidal ally, the movement has finally caught up with Starmer. The May elections put the final nails in Starmer’s authority, and we know Palestine was a major factor in the vote.

With Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, PSC commissioned polling of voters who have stopped voting Labour under Starmer’s leadership and now support other parties of the centre and left. Despite the focus on Reform, Labour has lost far more voters to centre and left parties. In England, four-in-five voters have gone to the Greens, the Liberal Democrats or independents and local parties. The largest group – accounting for 40% of all voters Labour has lost since the 2024 General Election – went to the Greens.

Respondents to the poll were asked if Labour’s policy on Palestine was a factor in them abandoning the party. The results were emphatic. More than half (53%) said Palestine was a factor, with two-thirds of voters who have switched from Labour to the Greens saying it was.

These other parties – the Greens most of all, and also Plaid Cymru and the SNP – have gone much further than Labour in demanding action against Israel. Our polling shows such this stance is hugely popular amongst these lost-Labour voters: 82% said they support the government doing more to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza, such as imposing sanctions on Israel; 80% said they support a ban on all arms sales to Israel; and 75% want a ban on trade that is linked to Israel’s illegal occupation and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The British establishment – still wedded to its alliance with Israel – has done its best to ignore this reality, but this polling demonstrates that the next Labour leader would be foolhardy to do so. It showed that 70% of the voters Labour has lost to centre and left parties would have a more favourable view of the party if it was more supportive of Palestinian rights, with 82% of Labour-to-Green switchers having this view.

Separate polling of Labour members has also shown that Palestine could be decisive in a contest to replace Starmer: Like the lost-Labour voters, Labour members demand much stronger action against Israel: 87% support a ban on trade with illegal settlements; 78% support suspending all arms exports to Israel; and 68% support a suspension of the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership agreement. Three-in-five say Palestine will be a major factor in their decision about who should be the next Labour leader.

It is little surprise, therefore, that the likes of Wes Streeting have tried to rebrand themselves as champions of Palestinian rights, even though in Streeting’s case he spent almost two years in a government complicit in the attempted erasure of the Palestinian people. Before that, Streeting opposed a ceasefire and dismissed South Africa’s attempt to hold Israel to account for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Now that Streeting has ruled himself out of the leadership contest, the path seems clear for Andy Burnham to take the helm. Although Burnham called for a ceasefire early in the genocide, he has avoided the topic in recent months, except to say that he cannot judge if Israel has committed a genocide. Even if the crime hadn’t been livestreamed across the globe, he might have consulted the likes of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Al-Haq, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, all of whom have concluded that Israel is guilty of the crime of crimes.

The next Prime Minister would do well to learn the lessons from Starmer. Palestine isn’t just a question of foreign policy. It is a question of the world we want to build. Starmer has sided with genocide and barbarism – and voters punished him. The next occupant of 10 Downing Street should heed that warning and end Britain’s complicity in these crimes, starting by imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel, including a full arms embargo. That isn’t just the right thing to do. It is also Labour’s best hope of winning back voters and defeating Reform.

Image credit: Alisdare Hickson – Creative Commons