Blair warns Burnham: snub Greens after Zionism racism vote

Sir Tony Blair has warned Andy Burnham not to enter a coalition with the Greens after the party voted to define Zionism as racism. The former prime minister said Zack Polanski’s party had crossed a dangerous line that no serious party should touch.

Blair wrote that the vote effectively branded the majority of Britain’s Jews as racists, since at least two-thirds call themselves Zionists, while also harming the Palestinian cause the Greens claim to support. He set out the warning in The Free Press, calling the decision a signal event for anyone who cares about Britain’s future and the peoples living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Senior Labour figures had already told The Independent that the prime minister should rule out any form of coalition with the Greens. Blair is the most prominent Labour voice to make the call in public. He said those tempted by a so-called progressive Red-Green alliance should treat the vote as a clear warning of the dangers such a pact would bring.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis described the motion, passed at the Greens’ annual conference, as a threat to British Jews and to Britain. The chair of Amnesty International, Sandy Ruthven, left the party, saying it was failing to confront prejudice in its ranks. Israel accused the Greens of legitimising the destruction of the state of Israel with a clear antisemitic text. Polanski, who did not vote, has been barred from entering Israel in response.

Blair was blunt. The Green Party of England and Wales had crossed a line that is unacceptable to cross. For Labour figures eyeing deals on the left of politics, the message is simple: this is not a partner. The former prime minister made plain that any alliance would import a stance that paints ordinary British Jews as racists and damages the very causes the Greens pretend to champion. Burnham and others have been put on notice.