Now, more than ever, as the world hurtles into endless wars and continents burn, we are appalled by some of the new British prime minister Andy Burnham’s choices for his cabinet.
To hand the Treasury purse strings to a man who demanded a £197bn increase in arms and nuclear weapons spending demonstrates beyond doubt that the military industrial complex is in charge of Burnham’s economic policy. The arms dealers and generals are undoubtedly now in the cabinet.
John Healey’s appointment as chancellor will inevitably mean huge fights over welfare, health and housing to come. None of the social and economic ambitions – tackling the cost of living crisis in particular – that Burnham claims to aspire to will be possible if an ever-growing portion of the economy is devoted to war and destruction.
Giving defence to a man with no discernable experience of the role other than defending Israel against NHS workers who speak out against Israeli genocide is disgraceful. Wes Streeting only claimed to have been “horrified” by the war in Gaza after resigning as health secretary when plotting his own move against Keir Starmer and has called for a cut in welfare spending to fund defence.
We note Burnham’s apology for the Starmer administration’s position on Israel’s actions in Gaza but call on the new prime minister, foreign and defence ministers to make a total break with it by swiftly announcing sanctions and a total end to arms sales.
We note too the prime minister’s commitment to continuing to stand with Ukraine, but an absence of any commitment to seeking a peaceful end to the war with Russia.
Burnham and his new ministers must stop the arms spending, spend our taxes on welfare, not warfare, demand a ceasefire and peace negotiations in the Russia/Ukraine war and for an end to the US’s illegal war on Iran, and name Israel’s actions in Gaza what they are – a genocide.