Burnham Rules Out Labour-Green Partnership Over Zionism Policy
Andy Burnham has ruled out a partnership between Labour and the Green Party while the Greens keep a conference policy that defines Zionism as racism.
He gave the commitment in the Commons on 14 October at Prime Minister's Questions, the weekly session when the prime minister answers MPs. Conservative MP Dame Harriett Baldwin had asked him to rule out working with the Greens. Mr Burnham said Labour could not back a partnership while that position stands. He said the Green motion was wrong and antisemitic and that Labour will have nothing to do with it, the BBC reported. BBC
The motion describes Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, as an ideology backing an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine that excludes and/or dominates the non-Jewish population. Green Party members approved it at conference, so it became party policy. Members of the Green Party of England and Wales voted 1,022 to 813 in favour, the BBC reported. BBC
The vote was listed as motion E02. Internal polling by the Jewish Greens, published on 2 October, found opinion on E02 very divided in that group. After the vote, Haringey Green Party said the result officially made the Greens an Anti-Zionist party.
Green leader Zack Polanski said the motion was imperfect and that he had wanted it amended. He later called for a rule change on conference motions, Al Jazeera reported on 11 October. Al Jazeera Four Green MPs and two former Green leaders also criticised the motion. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had criticised it in the week it passed. On 6 October, senior Labour figures were reported to have ruled out working with the Greens, The Guardian reported. The Guardian The exchanges on 14 October put the position in the prime minister's own words, The Guardian reported. The Guardian
The immediate issue here is councils in England. Labour is currently in coalition with the Greens on some councils, including Sheffield. A Downing Street spokesman would not say whether Mr Burnham's position covers local councils or only national government. Council groups in England have considerable autonomy. National leaders can signal intent, but they cannot always instruct local groups without a formal mechanism.
The broader context here is that cooperation has meant different things in different places. A national understanding or confidence arrangement, where a smaller party supports a government without joining it, is separate from joint running of a hung council, where no party has a majority. Mr Burnham has closed down the first. He has left the second unclear. For Labour council leaders, that lack of clarity brings risk. For Green councillors, it brings both leverage and exposure.
A further question here is management inside the Greens. The vote passed by just over 200 votes, opposed by the leader, the parliamentary group and former leaders. That points to a gap between the membership majority and elected representatives. Mr Polanski's call for amendment and procedural reform suggests he wants tighter control of what reaches the conference floor. Whether members agree will shape how durable the policy is, and how long Mr Burnham's exclusion lasts.
For historical context here, the UN General Assembly said in 1975 that Zionism was a form of racism. It reversed that decision in 1991. The Green motion uses its own definition and sits inside the constitution of the English and Welsh party. Policy made by conference can only be undone through the party's own processes.
