Shipments of arms double - telling only part of story

British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn ($10.6bn), according to the only publicly available official figures, reflecting escalating geopolitical uncertainties and fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine

- Dan Sabbagh

The largest destination for UKmade weaponry was Qatar, which spent £2.7bn, and 54% went to countries designated as "not free" by the human rights group Freedom House.

These include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as Qatar.

The £8.5bn recorded in 2022 is comfortably a record since the UK began publishing export data in 2008, and is more than double the £4.1bn recorded in 2021. The previous high was £6.9bn in 2015, a time when Syria had collapsed into civil war.