UK-made weapons have been used in repression around the world, including Hong Kong. Please take action to strengthen the ability of Parliament to scrutinise the UK government on the arms trade caat.org.uk/arms-controls |
Dear friend,
With the new majority government taking office, it’s more important than ever that we can hold it to account.
As MPs settle into the new Parliament, can you support our call for a new committee to strengthen the ability of Parliament to scrutinise the UK government on the arms trade?
The government is supposed to regulate the sale of arms from the UK. Weapons can’t be exported without a licence from the UK government, and these should only be granted in accordance with strict rules. But the government’s focus has not been on limiting arms sales. In fact, it actively works to secure more deals.
The UK supplies arms to more than 100 countries worldwide. This has included billions of pounds of arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen, despite overwhelming evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law.
It has supplied tear gas to Hong Kong and components for Israel’s weapons used in the Occupied Palestinian territories. It is courting repressive leaders such as Erdoğan in Turkey, Dutertes in the Philippines and Bolsonaro in Brazil.
MPs can play a vital role in investigating and challenging these sales, but in the last parliament they didn’t have adequate resources to hold the government to account. Last year they even struggled to get enough representation at meetings to be able to make official decisions. Ministers and arms companies refused to appear and answer their questions.
We can change this. MPs involved at the time recommended that there needed to be a full Select Committee to consider arms exports. Select Committees in the new Parliament are still to be decided so with a push now, we can ensure that the scrutiny of arms exports is finally given the resources it deserves.
MPs are already signing a parliamentary petition on the subject. Please use our template to write today and ask your MP to add their support too.
Thank you for your action.
 |
Sarah
Campaign Against Arms Trade
P.S. Whatever your MP thinks about the arms trade, we hope they can support proper democratic scrutiny of government. You can email them in just two minutes here: caat.org.uk/arms-controls