Such a naivety over arms shows Labour are ‘not fit to govern’
LABOUR are not worthy of office because their leaders are confused over Britain’s arms exports to Israel, a former Attorney General has warned.
Sir Michael Ellis blasted David Lammy’s repeated calls for the Government to publish legal advice surrounding military sales to the country.
He said Labour are “not fit to govern” because the party’s leaders have shown a “deep misunderstanding” of lawyers’ roles.
And Sir Michael said the Shadow Foreign Secretary was showing naivety over the issue, warning that lawyers must always be allowed to give their advice to their clients privately. He said: “Lawyers are advisers. They are not the deciders.”
It comes just days after David Cameron said Britain would not suspend arms exports to Israel despite having “grave concerns” about humanitarian access to Gaza.
Speaking in Washington, the Foreign Secretary said he had reviewed the most recent legal advice and this left our position on export licences “unchanged”.
Nonsensical
He said there was a “robust legal process” for assessing the licences, adding the Government would not publish or comment on legal advice but would “act in a way that is consistent with it”.
Earlier this week Mr Lammy reiterated calls for Lord Cameron to publish any legal advice the UK government had received.
Mr Lammy suggested “on issues of war”, a Labour government would publish a “summary of legal advice”, as the Government did after the UK took action against the Houthis.
Sir Michael, a senior Conservative MP, said Labour’s stance on the issue shows the party is not fit to be in government.
“Labour’s approach is so ill-judged and politically nonsensical that their demands on this are best ignored,” he added.
The Government has faced increasing pressure on arms exports to Israel following the deaths of three Britons in an air strike that killed seven working for the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has said the UK would stop arms sales to Israel if it was found to be in breach of international law.
UK companies provide about 0.02% of Israel’s overall arms imports. The UK’s arms exports to Israel amounted to only £42million in 2022.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade says that since 2008, the UK has granted arms export licences to Israel worth £574million in total. Almost two-thirds (65%) of Israel’s arms imports come from the US with just under a third, 30%, coming from Germany.
Lord Cameron has said the UK’s support for Israel was “not unconditional”.
It comes as US President Joe Biden has emphasised his country’s support for Israel with Iran vowing retaliation for this month’s deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.The US military believes Israel carried out the airstrike on Iran’s diplomatic station, which killed two top generals and others. Israel has not commented on the attack, but Tehran holds it responsible. The White House says it had no prior knowledge of the operation.
Mr Biden said: “Our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security.”