Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out any partnership with the Green Party after it adopted a motion describing Zionism as racism, calling the motion “wrong” and “antisemitic” in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, that he rejected the Green Party’s conference motion that classifies Zionism as racism, saying: “It is wrong, it is antisemitic, and this side of the House will have nothing to do with it,” according to Jewish Insider. He added: “We cannot support a partnership with a party that holds the position that has recently been adopted.”
He was responding to the Conservative MP Dame Harriett Baldwin, who pressed him to rule out cooperation with the Greens. The statement is a change from the week before, when, according to the report, he criticised the motion but declined to rule out a future coalition with the Greens. A Bloomberg headline describes it as Burnham rejecting a future deal with the Greens, and a Haaretz headline reports that he called the motion antisemitic.
The motion was passed at the Green Party’s annual conference in Brighton earlier in October, according to the report. It classifies Zionism as racism and calls for a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine, and it was approved by party members. The Green leader, Zack Polanski, opposed it, as did the former leader Caroline Lucas and several other Green lawmakers, so the party is divided over the motion.
British Jewish organisations condemned the motion, according to Jewish Insider. The report does not name them or give their statements, and does not carry a response from the Green Party leadership to Burnham’s statement, so the Greens’ reaction cannot be given here.
The question of cooperation is not abstract. Labour and the Greens currently govern together on some local councils, including Sheffield, Lewes and Warwick, and take part in broader coalitions in more than 10 other areas, according to the report. Burnham’s statement does not say what will happen to those arrangements, and the sources reviewed do not report any change to them.
Burnham is a new prime minister. According to Wikipedia’s account of the 2026 Labour Party leadership crisis, he was elected unopposed as Labour leader after receiving nominations from more than 90% of Labour MPs, became leader on 17 July and became prime minister on 20 July. He had entered Parliament through the Makerfield by-election on 18 June, which he won with almost 25,000 votes and a majority of over 9,200.
The leadership change followed the departure of Keir Starmer. Wikipedia says that Labour won about 17% of the vote in England in the local elections of 7 May, that around 80 MPs called on Starmer to go by 11 May and that he announced his resignation on 22 June. Cabinet ministers including Wes Streeting, John Healey and Al Carns resigned in May and June, according to the page, so the party’s position was weak when Burnham took over.
Burnham’s hardening of his line shows the pressure on him over the issue. The sources reviewed do not give polling or the response of the Green leadership to the prime minister’s statement.
The next question is whether the Greens change the motion or whether the issue affects local alliances, and Delima News will follow it.
Image: Prime Minister Andy Burnham arriving at 10 Downing Street (file photo). Photo: UK Prime Minister / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
