Issue No 278 of CAAT news details latest activities of this trade

November 2026

We give coverage to this newsletter from CAAT because of the significance of the arms industry in connection with our political process and for human rights world wide. These are:

• The industry is one of the few in the UK of any size which is successful internationally and hence creates many jobs. Its role in our economy is therefore significant with a number of marginal seats dependent on the votes of those who work in it.
• It mounts a huge lobbying effort in parliament. An Israeli firm is back in business lobbying parliamentarians. There is growing concern at the rapid growth and scale of the lobbying (not just from arms firms) and the effects it has on the political process. Human rights groups cannot match the funding arms firms can deploy.
• To promote the industry, rules have been softened to enable arms to be sold more widely. Claims of ‘robust’ export controls are a falsehood with more and more open licenses being agreed. British weapons have been deployed in Yemen, Gaza and Sudan causing widespread destruction, civilian deaths and injury and the destruction of schools, hospitals, mosques and other buildings.
• The ‘revolving door‘ corruption sees hundreds of senior military staff, civil servants and parliamentarians accepting well paid directorships and consultancies after their retirement. Controls on this activity are weak.
• Taken together, the arms industry is a well-funded and highly organised tail wagging a weak political dog. Moral scruples and the misery their products inflict on those at the receiving end do not seem to trouble them or the parliamentarians who are supposedly there to oversee the industry. We must never forget it is women and children who are so often those at the receiving end of this trade, losing lives, limbs or sight in the pursuit of profit.

Current issue

The current issue covers the following aspects of the trade:

Saudi

In the 7 year war in Yemen, 377, 000 were killed by the coalition. The war involved the indiscriminate attack on schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure. To maximise deaths, weddings and funerals were attacked where numbers were known to gather. Between 6 and 7 thousand BAE employees aided the Saudis. CAAT makes clear the UK and the RAF are complicit in these atrocities.

BAE Systems have been fined a total of $36m for breaching US arms export regulations by selling equipment to among others, China.

Israel

There was initial welcome (including on this site) for the new Foreign Secretary’s decision to hold Israel to account for genocide, apartheid and occupation [of Gaza]. However, they point out, on the crucial question of arms sales to the country, there is far less to applaud. A Labour minister reported in September that no licenses have been suspended. The government it says ‘wants to uphold international law so long as it is not too inconvenient for the arms industry and the UK’s relations with the US‘.

The attitude of the Burnham government towards the industry is not encouraging they point out. Appointments include Jonathan Reynolds who in a previous post was responsible for the F-35 carve-out. We noted above that nothing material has happened about arms sales to Israel. His chief of staff is James Purnell who was chair of Labour Friends of Israel and was chief executive of Flint Global a lobbyist for (you guessed it) arms firms and oil companies.

Dead Letter

This is a report CAAT have produced which we covered in a previous post. In essence the report describes government’s attempts to obfuscate the rules to enable arms sales to continue to regimes despite the killing of innocent people.

Other matters are covered including continuing involvement in the war in Sudan. The essential issue is that the interests of the industry seem to overcome all other considerations. Britain is complicit in some dreadful humanitarian crimes and the killing of thousands with the only thing that seems to matter is that arms sales keep on rolling. Claims by various ministers that things might change look unconvincing based on the background of some of those appointed into key government positions and their statements which turn out to be misleading or plain wrong.

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