‘Rhetoric differs’: How the UK’s relationship with Israel took a downturn

The United Kingdom is expected to announce trade restrictions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest sign, some analysts say, that UK-Israeli relations have taken another downturn.

Britain is one of Israel’s strongest allies in the West, but since the Labour Party came back to power after more than a decade in opposition, some of the government’s policies and rhetoric have shifted.

On the one hand, the UK still maintains diplomatic ties and supplies F-35 parts through the global pool programme that Israel can access. On the other, it has suspended some arms-export licences and more regularly condemns the conduct of the Israeli military and settlers.

While campaigning ahead of the 2024 general election, then-Labour leader Keir Starmer said Israel “has the right” to withhold power and water from Gaza, during an interview with the UK’s LBC radio station. His comment upset many and he later backtracked, saying he believed Israel had a right to “self-defence”.

In May 2025, he wrote that he “strongly” opposed the “expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza”, in a joint letter with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian premier Mark Carney.

Last week, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, appointed under new premier Andy Burnham, told the House of Commons that he would set out measures to prevent the UK’s involvement in projects such as the E1 settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory. It comes at a time of increasing violence towards Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank .

“Obviously, the rhetoric differs between them [UK prime ministers], but materially, the Israeli regime operates just as it did, irrespective of whether Andy Burnham or [former Conservative Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak was at the helm,” Zena Agha, a policy analyst with the British Palestinian Committee, told Al Jazeera.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior figures often mock Britain, where public opinion is increasingly turning against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.