Truss apologises over illegal sale of military kit to Saudis

LIZ Truss yesterday admitted Britain illegally sold equipment to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen.

In a letter to MPs, the International Trade Secretary apologised for the Government twice breaching an arms embargo. She said she had launched a probe into the sale of £435,000 of radio kit to Saudi land forces.

In June the Court of Appeal banned arms exports to Saudi Arabia for possible use in Yemen. Miss Truss said the licence should not have been granted because the radio kit was used by signallers sent to the wartorn state.

‘I have taken immediate steps to identify whether any other licences have been granted which might be in breach of the undertaking’, she wrote to MPs on the arms export controls committee.

The UK has licensed the sale of at least £5.3billion of weapons to Saudi Arabia since the start of the civil war in Yemen in March 2015.

Andrew Smith, of the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: ‘We are always being told how rigorous and robust UK arms export controls supposedly are, but this shows that nothing could be further from the truth.

‘If the Government cannot be trusted to follow its own rules, or an order from the Court of Appeal, then it must immediately end all arms exports to the Saudi regime and cease all support for this devastating war.’

A Department for International Trade spokesman said: ‘We very much regret that the licences were issued in error. The International Trade Secretary commissioned a full and urgent investigation as soon as the breach was discovered.’