Mick Hartley

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Keir Starmer claimed that the decision to suspend 30 of the UK’s 350 arms export licences to Israel was a “legal decision not a policy decision”. Not so, says Kemi Badenoch:

The former business and trade secretary said in a lengthy post on X/Twitter: “It is not true that the removal of Israel arms licences was a legal decision. Keir Starmer should not hide behind this fig leaf. It was *very* much a political decision… I know this, because as trade secretary, responsible for arms licences, I saw the legal advice.” 

She accused Labour of being scared of anti-Israel activists and contrasted that approach with her own time in office: “I made a considered decision to maintain all existing licences for arms exports to Israel. Union-backed civil servants threatened to stop work and go on strike. My response was not to make concessions but to make it clear that they were there to deliver the government’s agenda. Not their own.”

Badenoch continued: “The Labour government has once again prioritised the mob over UK interests, making politically charged foreign policy decisions that lack legal reasoning and weaken our position in the global fight against Iran and her terrorist proxies.”

The Tory leadership contender also questioned why the government reached this decision even though advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stated that "it has not been possible to reach a determinative judgement on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities."

“If it hasn't been possible to reach a judgement why are licenses suspended?,” she asked rhetorically before accusing the government of “playing around” with Britain’s defence industry and national security and harming Britain’s relationship with the United States and Israel.