This charming man... or bigmouth strikes again: what should Britain’s Jews expect from our Smiths fan PM Andy Burnham?

One of Burnham’s closest allies Louise Haigh, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has referred to Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide” and as highlighted by this paper, new foreign office minister Uma Kumaran had – shortly before her appointment to her new role – said that Palestinians were subject to a “system of legal apartheid”.

Several senior communal sources I’ve spoken to have indicated they have severe concerns about the Israel-related stances he adopted early on.

Many of our communal organisations have extended the usual welcome to Andy Burnham and let it be known that they are keen to work with him to tackle antisemitism, as they did during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he enjoyed a good relationship with the community.

But there is still significant trepidation about what sort of policies his government will end up pursuing.

His appointment of Ed Miliband, the second Miliband to hold the role of foreign secretary, brought back memories of the robust disagreement between the former leader of the Labour party and the community when it came to the 2014 Gaza conflict.

But that doesn’t mean that, as some of Burnham’s more hardline critics have suggested, his team have made a decision to throw the Jewish community under the bus in order to win back wavering Green and Muslim voters.

Reality is, as ever, far more complicated.

The change in rhetoric when it comes to Israel doesn’t seem to have shifted the approach of Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Your Party MP Zarah Sultana.

Even though Burnham has barely got his feed under the desk in No10 (north and south), they’re both taking to social media to – loudly and frequently – voice their displeasure with the fact that Burnham hasn’t called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”.

Polanski picked up on Haigh’s remarks, made last year, and wrote to her to ask why the prime minister wasn’t willing to share the views she espoused.

“As you will be aware, the Genocide Convention, which Britain is a signatory to, requires states to take action to prevent genocide as soon as they become aware there is a serious risk of it. That threshold was clearly met long ago, as you yourself have acknowledged”, he said in a public letter.

Meanwhile, Sultana, the former Labour MP for Coventry South, lamented that Britain’s new prime minister was “continuing to supply UK arms to the apartheid state of Israel as it commits genocide against the Palestinian people”.

Additionally, Burnham’s left-wing critics are only too keen to point out that his chief of staff James Purnell once served as Labour Friends of Israel’s parliamentary chair.

Indeed, although some Jewish communal representatives may look back nostalgically at Sir Keir Starmer’s time in Downing Street, it is worth remembering that his government was already pursuing a robust approach to Israel, with ministers indicating they are looking at the best and most effective way to impose sanctions in response to settlement activity.

There is a remarkable degree of continuity when it comes to communal matters.

Starmer’s former communities secretary Angela Rayner returns to her old post.

While out of ministerial office following her resignation for her tax affairs, the former deputy prime minister visited both the Nova Festival exhibition and Heaton Park synagogue. Despite some historic concerns about her closeness to Corbyn’s wing of the party, there were no communal complaints about her previous time in post.

There was delight in some communal quarters at the reappointment of Shabana Mahmood.

Though her confirmation as home secretary was more likely an endorsement of the political necessity of her immigration reforms – especially in the prime minister’s new constituency of Makerfield in which Reform UK enjoyed huge success in May’s council elections – her understanding of Islamist antisemitism and willingness to confront it robustly is something many have spoken about in her favour.

Where Burnham differs from Starmer is that he is clearly setting out to be a more domestic-focused prime minister with early announcements on apprenticeships, capping bus fares, scrapping VAT on energy bills and cutting business rates for pubs.

Much has also been said about the new prime minister’s more confident approach to communications; most notably on social media. While I have no desire to hype up a prime minister in a honeymoon phase, I cannot possibly imagine Starmer posing for a video with an influencer and sharing lyrics from the Smiths to announce government policy, without coming off as ever-so-slightly wooden.

But despite this clear desire to focus away from international affairs, it is hard to see whether this will succeed, especially if, as some suspect, we might be heading for an early general election.

Burnham, like other Labour figures, was quick to call for a general election when the Tories changed prime ministers. As Britain is a parliamentary democracy, there is no constitutional requirement to do so.

Although he talked down the prospect of a general election during an interview with Laura Kunessberg, he hasn’t killed off speculation completely.

Both he and Purnell will likely remember Gordon Brown, in whose cabinet they served, “bottling” the opportunity to call an early general election at a time when he was topping the polls. They may wish to avoid following down a similar path.

But should that happen, he and Labour will face renewed pressure to take a more hardline approach to Israel, fearing more losses in seats with a substantial number of Muslim voters.

Wes Streeting for instance, who used on of his first outings as defence secretary to criticise Israel, came within 528 votes of losing his Ilford North constituency to a pro-Gaza independent candidate.

Even though Burnham may not want to focus on Israel or the Middle East more generally, taking an increasingly robust stance – in rhetoric and in manifesto pledges – against an Israeli government (containing two far-right ministers whose antics make life even more difficult for supporters of Israel in the Labour Party) might seem like the logical thing to do.