Writing for the Guardian, Mark Smith, who resigned from the Foreign Office in August, said officials were instructed to manipulate findings on the misuse of UK arms by allies, and if they did not do so, their reports were edited by senior colleagues to give the impression that the UK was in compliance with the law.
Smith wrote that the endorsement of UK arms sales to Israel between October 2023 and September 2024 was even more shocking: “Israel’s repeated bombardments of Gaza have killed thousands of civilians and destroyed vital infrastructure, actions that are blatantly incompatible with international law.
Although much of his criticism is directed at the last Conservative government concerning arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, and arms sales to Israel, Smith did not absolve Labour.
He welcomed the UK ban on arms exports to Israel in September, but since then, he said the government had stood by as Israel continued to commit war crimes.
He said from the UK embassy in Ireland – a country that strongly backs a Palestinian state – he sought answers from the Foreign Office headquarters about the legal basis for arms sales to Israel, and was “met with hostility and stonewalling”.
