‘We don’t have a boycott’: Labour back selling arms to Israel
LABOUR have backed selling arms to Israel, with a top MP saying they had not seen evidence the country was breaking international humanitarian law. Pat McFadden, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and one of Keir Starmer’s key allies, said there was not a “boycott of selling arms to Israel”.
Speaking to Sky News’s Kay Burley, the senior Labour MP also repeated Labour’s calls for the UK Government to publish its legal advice on whether Israel was following international law.
His comments are likely to enrage pro-Palestine Labour MPs who have called for the UK to suspend arms sales to Israel, and come after three British citizens working for an aid organisation in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday night.
His comments have also sparked accusations that Labour are “on the wrong side of history” on the issue. McFadden said: “We always want Israel or any ally to abide by international humanitarian law, we’ve said that all the way through this conflict and, you know, that’s what guides our policy.”
Challenged by Burley on whether Labour would suspend arms sales if they were in charge, the MP said: “We don’t have a boycott of selling arms to Israel.”
Asked again whether Labour backed supplying arms to Israel, McFadden said that was “something we would do” if it was believed the country was “abiding by international humanitarian law”.
Burley then asked whether he believed that Israel was following international law.
McFadden replied: “Well, if there’s proper legal evidence that they aren’t, the Government should come out and say so.”
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “The Labour Party does not believe Israel has breached international law. The Labour Party backs continuing the sale of arms to Israel.
“The Labour Party is on the wrong side of history.”
A number of Labour MPs have called for the UK Government to suspend arms sales, including backbencher Zarah Sultana, who has presented a Private Member’s Bill to give effect to an embargo.
Labour have called on the Government to publish its legal advice on the situation in Gaza, with the party renewing its calls in the wake of bombshell comments by the Tory chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
Alicia Kearns heaped pressure on the Government over the weekend when it emerged she had accused ministers of keeping secret legal advice which said Israel was committing war crimes.
Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell last week brushed away calls for the Government to publish its legal advice. But if the claims are true, the Government opens itself up to the risk of being charged with complicity in Israeli war crimes.
So far, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
A joint statement signed by a host of United Nations special rapporteurs, working groups, and other experts in February called on the UK to suspend arms sales to Israel, warning “state officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes”.