AN “APOLOGY” issued by Andy Burnham over Labour’s response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is meaningless unless followed by an end to arms sales to Israel, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has said.

In a video published alongside a Guardian interview, the likely next Labour leader said his party “didn’t get it right” at the start of the war and that Britain “was too slow to call for a ceasefire.”

CAAT research co-ordinator Sam Perlo-Freeman said: “It is a cynical move by Burnham to issue a non-apology for the Labour government’s many outrages during Israel’s ongoing genocide while throwing us a red herring about the timing of ceasefire calls.

“His ‘apology’ is meaningless unless it is followed, if and when Burnham becomes prime minister, by a total ban on arms sales to Israel, with no exceptions or excuses.”

He said the comments are designed to distract from Britain being a “vital cog in Israel’s war machine,” whether in the F-35 programme, used by Israel to bombard Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, or turning a blind eye to the thousands of Brits fighting in Gaza.

“In hedging his language around the undeniable evidence of systematic war crimes by the Israeli government, Burnham is carefully avoiding triggering a legal duty to immediately halt arms sales,” Mr Perlo-Freeman said.

“That in itself should ring alarm bells.”