Burnham's plan to 'end neoliberalism' includes hiring US firm linked to Gaza aid site massacres

Burnham's plan to 'end neoliberalism' includes hiring US firm linked to Gaza aid site massacres

Submitted by Oscar Rickett on Tue, 11/10/2026 - 14:44 Boston Consulting Group, whose former employees include Benjamin Netanyahu and James Purnell, to consult on UK prime minister's 10-year plan A GHF aid site pictured on 8 June 2025, as smoke bombs are fired by Israeli troops (Eyad Baba/AFP) Off

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has turned to an American consulting group that worked with the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to help draft a plan that was supposed to “end neoliberalism” in the UK.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG), whose former employees include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Burnham’s chief of staff, James Purnell, has been hired to help shape the prime minister’s 10-year plan.

One of the “big three” management consultancy firms, BCG has been accused of aiding Israeli starvation tactics that amount to war crimes and genocide, and of being implicated in the killing of thousands of Palestinians. 

The Boston-based consultancy helped establish the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and supported a related security company before distancing itself from the project. 

The aid distribution organisation caused the death of over 2,600 Palestinians in Gaza and the injury of many thousands more. GHF ran four aid distribution sites in Gaza where Palestinians seeking aid were deliberately shot by Israeli soldiers or US security contractors hired by the organisation.

In July last year, the Financial Times reported that BCG was paid more than $4m for its work with the GHF, which was codenamed “Aurora”, stretched over seven months and involved the input of senior members of the firm. 

Just two months after US President Donald Trump posted his vision for “Trump Gaza”, in which the Palestinian enclave would be emptied of its native population of over two million and turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, BCG modelled the cost of “relocating” hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.

The financial models built by BCG were part of a GHF initiative backed by several Israeli entities. One model estimated that more than 500,000 Palestinians would leave Gaza with “relocation packages” worth $9,000 per person, or around $5bn in total, according to the FT.

'Consultant to kleptocrats'

Boston Consulting Group has longstanding connections to Israel. Between 1976 and 1978, Benjamin Netanyahu worked as a consultant for the firm.

After the Gaza revelations came to light, BCG fired several employees, said the projects were “run secretly”, expressed its "shock and outrage", and launched an internal investigation. The charity Save the Children International suspended its partnership with the US management consultancy.

BCG is no stranger to controversy, though. It has been described as a “consultant to kleptocrats” and has maintained a close, “lucrative” relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

'As if it wasn’t bad enough that we are privatising our public assets, it seems that this Labour government is now privatising our future too'

- Zack Polanski, Green Party leader

There are over 6,000 “AI practitioners” at BCG, and the company has partnered with OpenAI, Amazon Web Services and other big Artificial Intelligence firms.

“Andy Burnham thinks those are the guys we should be working with,” Green Party leader Zack Polanski said in a video responding to the hiring of BCG, which will provide one consultant to work on the government’s 10-year plan.

“When Andy Burnham became prime minister back in July, he promised to end neoliberalism with a 10-year plan. Now whilst that’s not nearly fast enough, the sentiment of ending neoliberalism, that’s something I welcome,” Polanski said.

“Yet in his few months as prime minister, Andy Burnham is already rowing back even on these weak commitments. Ruling out rent controls, not nationalising our water companies and indeed on opening Jackdaw, a new gas field,” the Green Party leader continued. 

“As if it wasn’t bad enough that we are privatising our public assets, it seems that this Labour government is now privatising our future too.”

Responding to Middle East Eye, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government is committed to delivering an ambitious and credible 10-year plan, drawing on the best expertise available both inside and outside government.

“Any external support is limited, short-term and focused on specific specialist advice. This does not change our commitment to significantly reducing overall spending on consultancy across government.”

Burnham's 'end to neoliberalism'

James Purnell, a minister in the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, worked as an adviser to BCG after stepping down as an MP in 2010.

Polanski referred to Purnell’s connection to BCG as a “wild coincidence”. “I wonder how they got that contract,” he said.

Purnell, a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, went on to become vice chancellor of University of the Arts London (UAL), where he was branded a “war criminal” by students and staff over his support for the Iraq war and attempts to crack down on Palestinian solidarity on campus. 

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Purnell went on to resign from his role, prompting celebrations from pro-Palestine staff and students. A former flatmate of Burnham’s, Purnell returned to government as his longstanding friend’s chief of staff.

Once associated, like Purnell, with the Blairite wing of the Labour Party, Burnham has struck a more populist, left-wing tone as prime minister, promising a “new political model and a new economic model” for the country.

“What I’m putting forward here, it’s an end to neoliberalism,” he said in one interview earlier this year.

The government’s 10-year plan, which is supposed to be published by Christmas, was meant to be part of this vision. Welfare spending, economic growth, energy policy and public control of utilities are all expected to be addressed.

But despite striking a more left-wing tone, Burnham has been criticised - including by his own MPs - for not nationalising public utilities failed by privatisation, keeping the ban on Palestine Action in place and of offering little more than minor technocratic tweaks in the face of the rapidly rising cost of living. 

As the former mayor of Manchester, Burnham's relationship with the Emirati owners of Manchester City Football Club, which was recently found guilty of breaking the Premier League's rules on a massive scale, has also come under the microscope.  

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