Selling war

Retired Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely,  president of the Royal British Legion, described the annual Festival of Remembrance as a "tremendous networking opportunity" Kiszley boasted he knew the 10 currently serving generals that he regarded as worth talking to with regard to procurement. The paper said Kiszely described having a close relationship with the new armed forces minister, Andrew Robathan.  Kiszely also said his ceremonial roles for the legion gave him access to Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, and Richards. One such occasion was the annual Festival of Remembrance, when he stands next to the prime minister.

Chris Simpkins, director general of the Royal British Legion said "The Legion's work, including Remembrance events, must be kept free of any suggestion that they could be used for commercial or political gain. Sir John's remarks suggested otherwise."

"What I did find, on leaving the service – government service – is you get paid wheelbarrows full of cash by all the people who employ you. It is unbelievable, and rather fun." Admiral Lord West, former head of the navy, continued: "It struck me as amazing that some people seemed to bounce seamlessly from within the Ministry [of Defence] and straight into a major defence firm within a matter of weeks." West was giving evidence to the Commons public administration committee earlier this year.

The Sunday Times claimed General Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army helped two executives from a South Korean defence company who wanted to sell the UK military a hi-tech drone. Dannatt offered to speak to Bernard Gray, the civilian chief of defence materiel. He was quoted as saying he had engineered a seat at a formal dinner with the Ministry of Defence's new permanent secretary, Jon Thompson, to help another company, Capital Symonds, which is bidding for a £400m contract to manage the MoD's estates.

The commander in chief of the Royal Navy fleet until March this year, Soar told the undercover reporters he knew "all the ministers" at the MoD. As he has only recently retired, remarked  "theoretically we are banned from lobbying ministers … we call it something different".

Lieutenant General Sir Richard Applegate, the former head of army procurement boasted about having spent the past 18 months working on behalf of an Israeli arms firm and had successfully lobbied the MoD to release £500m for a helicopter safety programme.

General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the army, was quoted as saying the current army chief, General Sir Peter Wall, was "a great mate" and that he could arrange a meeting with him to "dangle a fly on the waters".

Over the past year, arms and arms-related companies gave 231 jobs to former officials and military personnel. And these do not include jobs given to former ministers, or more junior officials.

 Sir David Manning, Tony Blair's former chief foreign policy adviser and US ambassador, and Sir Jonathon Band, former head of the navy, are non-executive directors of Lockheed Martin UK, the British arm of the US company that makes the fighter due to fly from the UK's new aircraft carriers. Sir Brian Burridge, commander of UK forces in the 2003 Iraq war, is vice-president of Italian-owned defence company Finmeccanica UK, in which Sir Kevin Tebbit, former top civil servant at the MoD, continues to have an important role. Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary who runs a consultancy, is a senior executive of AgustaWestland, the helicopter factory owned by Finmeccanica.