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Britain's plans to impose a trade ban raise significant diplomatic risks, especially ahead of UK PM's planned meeting with a rising US president. While critics warn of strained relations with Israel and possible economic fallout, some insiders view the move as a political opportunity for the Labour Party to consolidate left‑wing support. The controversy has already drawn comments from US officials and Israeli diplomats, heightening tensions and prompting speculation about broader geopolitical ramifications.
Britain’s planned trade ban risks a diplomatic and economic backlash, but Labour sees an opportunity to rebuild support on its left flankThe diplmatic risk facing Andy Burnham is obvious as Britain announces the move just weeks before he is expected to meet the volatile US president for the first time.
Photograph: Leon Neal/PA Wiresettlements is fraught with diplomatic and economic risk. Yet insiders say it also represents a political opportunity for British prime ministerstate there unviable.
Rather than an unfortunate side effect of the settlement expansion, this may well be Israel’s aim, judging by the belligerent statements of some of the most senior members of Miliband, who when he was Labour leader pushed for British recognition of a Palestinian state a decade before it happened, says the issue is a “red line” that Israel has crossed. A wickedly inventive political ad is airing in Texas as midterm elections loom He has promised a “reset” of relations with the Jewish state, which has reacted with fury and is threatening to recognise Argentina’s claim over the Falklands Islands in retaliation.
The diplomatic risk is obvious, as Britain announces the move just weeks before Burnham is expected to meet the volatileThe US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has already accused Britain of “Jew hate” – an interesting accusation to fire at Miliband, whose family heritage is Jewish. There is also clear economic risk, given the fact that several US states have on their statute books laws that prevent US companies trading with countries that boycott Israel.
Huckabee also claimed that a quarter of the pharmaceuticals used in Britain originate in Israel, saying: “Are they willing to give those up? ” Israel’s government has said it will respond.
“If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain,” said Gideon Saar, the Jewish state’s foreign minister. Israeli president Binyamin Netanyahu with US president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, last year. Photograph: Tierney L Cross/The New York Times Labour sources also suggested the sanctions move by Miliband, fully backed by Burnham, would face pushback in Britain from those associated with the defence, security and healthcare sectors.
“And that’s before you get to the foreign policy ramifications, such as the US attitude to the Falklands,” said one senior party figure. Apart from the depth of the proposed sanctions, which would go further than anything proposed by the Irish Government, the timing of Burnham and Miliband’s move is interesting, so close to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool starting on September 27th and shortly before the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in Keir Starmer’s old constituency.
Labour will battle the Green Party, which has taken votes from Labour’s left flank for years, especially among Muslims, over Starmer’s perceived softness on Israel in the past.
“It’s more about the message than the substance,” said one senior party figure. “It will be popular with the party and the public, and not unhelpful ahead of the byelection. ” Another insider said the timing so close to Labour’s conference was “deliberate” to excite the left-wing activists that Starmer’s ill-fated reign had alienated. Burnham can credibly argue he has Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK on the run, given Labour has overtaken it in polls.
Now he has his sights set on reclaiming ground from the Greens to the left. Rather than risking a divide in Labour – some of its MPs are critical of what they see as gesture politics – Burnham’s big gamble is that he can galvanise his party at Labour’s big conference in Liverpool. A survivable row with Trump won’t do him any harm within his own party, either.
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