Back in September 2012, I took Andy Burnham on a parliamentary delegation to the West Bank. It was his first proper visit there. Like most politicians on their first such trip, he was visibly shocked.By the middle of the first day, Burnham turned to me and said: “Chris, I have always been told that we support a two-state solution and I do. But where is this second state?” Confronted by only a small fraction of the phenomenal occupation infrastructure of checkpoints, walls, barriers, settlements and military installations, he had reached the same conclusion as so many on the ground in Palestine.Fast forward 14 years and Burnham is almost certainly going to replace Keir Starmer as the UK prime minister. Among the many changes that Labour supporters hope Burnham will make from the two years of Starmer’s rule will be the British position on and approach to Palestine. Questions also arise as to what his position will be on broader Middle East matters.To assess his views, one has to feed off a few meager scraps. What we know so far is a product of calculated ambiguity. As Manchester mayor, he did not venture off into international affairs every day, although he had to handle relations with the city’s sizable Muslim community.Burnham did vote for the 2003 Iraq war. That is held against him, but he has expressed regret and claims to have........

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