UK sold military items to Israel despite arms export ban, trade data reveals

UK companies have exported thousands of military items including munitions to Israel despite the government suspending key arms export licences to the country, new analysis of trade data shows.

- Patrick Wintour

The research also raises questions over whether the UK continued to sell F-35 parts directly to Israel in breach of an undertaking only to sell them to the US manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, as a way of ensuring the stealth fighter jet's global supply chain was not disrupted, something the government said was essential for national security and Nato.

The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for a full investigation, saying it is a resigning matter if the foreign secretary, David Lammy, is shown to have misled parliament when he told MPs in September that much of what the UK sent to Israel was "defensive in nature".

McDonnell said: "The government has shrouded its arms supplies to Israel in secrecy. They must finally come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel to ensure no British-made weapons are used in [the Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land."