UK - Morally Repugnant

The Government has been forced to repeatedly defend the trade amid evidence of war crimes and civilian deaths in Yemen, where Saudi-led bombardment is worsening a hunger crisis and cholera epidemic. Evidence found at the scene of massacres suggests some were carried out by British-made weapons, including Raytheon’s laser-guided Paveway IV smart bomb, which is manufactured in Fife. In two years of civil war in Yemen, an estimated 1,300 children have been killed and 2,000 more injured, with 212 schools attacked and medical facilities destroyed and millions at risk of famine and cholera.

British arms companies have earned more than £6bn from their trade with Saudi Arabia during the ongoing war in Yemen, new research has found.

The charity, War Child UK, accused private manufacturers including BAE Systems and Raytheon of “profiteering from the deaths of innocent children” by selling missiles and equipment to the Saudi-led coalition. Rocco Blume, a conflict and humanitarian advisor at War Child, said Britain is not only selling arms to Saudi forces but assisting with the maintenance of them as well.

War Child said there was a disparity between the economic benefit to the British public versus the profit for private firms inside the arms industry, which is estimated at almost £600m.

A spokesperson said: “Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia generated just £13m in corporation tax in 2016, yet during 2017, the UK will spend £139m in humanitarian aid to Yemen. This means the Treasury is spending over four times in aid what it is getting back in tax.”

But Rob Williams, the CEO of War Child UK, said it was “morally repugnant that the UK government is allowing companies to make killer profits from the deaths of innocent children. Thousands of children have died and millions more are at risk,” he added. “The British Government is shamefully complicit in their suffering and justifies it with promises of economic prosperity, which this report embarrassingly discredits.”