David Lammy Accused of Misleading Parliament as New Report Reveals Huge Scale of Continued UK Arms Shipments to Israel

The UK Government has continued to send a wide range of military exports from the UK to Israel since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, including thousands of items categorised as “munitions of war”, despite ministers suggesting that remaining UK exports were mainly of a “defensive” nature.

In September 2024, the UK Government suspended 30 arms export licenses to Israel, with the Foreign Secretary David Lammy stating in the House of Commons that “much of what we send [to Israel] is defensive in nature” such as “helmet[s] or goggles”, and “not what we describe routinely as arms”.

However, a joint report by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the Progressive International (PI) and Workers for a Free Palestine (WFFP) accuses Lammy of misleading Parliament, due to data revealing that the UK has continued to send large numbers of lethal munitions to Israel, including one maritime delivery to Haifa carrying over 160,000 items.

Shipments sent after Lammy’s announcement include 8,630 separate munitions exports placed in the category ‘Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof – Other’.

Zarah Sultana, the suspended Labour MP for Coventry South said: “This explosive report shows the Government has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza. Far from “helmets and goggles”, the Government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition goods and even still supplying components of the world’s most lethal fighter jets. By the Government’s own admission, continued direct supply of F-35 parts to Israel would put Britain at ‘clear risk’ of contributing to Israel’s violations of international law and therefore breaching our own legal obligations”.

Sultana called on David Lammy to resign, saying “This report alleges that David Lammy has misled Parliament and the public, which would be a clear breach of the Ministerial Code. Keir Starmer must immediately launch a full investigation into these alleged breaches of the Ministerial Code and if David Lammy or any other minister has breached the code, they must resign. Moreover, an independent inquiry is required into this damning new evidence that the Government has breached the UK’s obligations under international law, making the British Government, and potentially individual Ministers, complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.

Labour MP John McDonnell also suggested that it could be a resigning matter for Lammy, stating: “The Government has a lot of explaining to do and fast in response to this groundbreaking report, particularly following the allegation that David Lammy and other Ministers have misled Parliament and the public. If Parliament has been misled by the Foreign Secretary or any minister it is a resigning matter and more importantly it attracts potentially a charge of complicity in war crimes. The Government has shrouded its arms supplies to Israel in secrecy. They must finally come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel to ensure no British made weapons are used in Netanyahu’s new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land.”

PI, PYM and WFFP produced the report by examining import data from the Israeli Tax Authority from October 2023 to March 2025, tracking customs codes which designate different types of arms and munitions, before supplementing that data with licensing data published by the UK’s Export Control Joint Unit.

Shipments detailed by the report include six loads of tanks, armoured vehicles or their parts, two shipments of rocket launchers, flame throwers, grenade launchers, torpedo tubes or other similar projectors, one shipment of 150,000 bullets and five shipments of “munitions of war” i.e. bombs, grenades, missiles, mines or parts to build them.

The most recent shipment detailed in the report (which only covers up to March this year) was in February 2025 in which Britain exported 2102 items worth £68,538.80. On the 5th of February David Lammy reiterated support for a two-state solution stating “We’ve always been clear in our belief that we must see two states. We must see Palestinians live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza and the West Bank”.

On the 17^th of February 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was committed to Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza of the Palestinian population.

Critics of Israel have argued since October 7^th that its intentions are genocidal and that the Israeli Government intends to ethnically cleanse the Gaza strip. The report argues that it could therefore put the British government in a difficult position legally if it could be shown that they were found to have knowingly sent arms shipments to a nation engaged in ethnic cleansing.

On Tuesday, 13 May, the UK Government will appear at the High Court to defend its licensing of ongoing arms exports to Israel. These exports have been linked to potential war crimes in Gaza, including bombings in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone where at least 90 people were killed in a single attack.

Although the UK Government did not specify which arms export licenses it suspended in September 2024, officials stated that many of the licenses related to military aircraft which could be used to violate international humanitarian law.

Although the suspension does not include parts of the F-35 fighter jet, the report found no noticeable decrease in the pattern of shipments of military aircraft parts to Israel.

The UK produces roughly 15% of the F-35 fighter jet that Israel has used to bomb Gaza and Lebanon since October 7th.

F-35 components were explicitly excluded from the Government’s decision to suspend arms export licenses, allowing the UK to continue exporting them in a carveout that was criticised at the time.

However, the Government did ban the transfer of F-35 parts directly to Israel from Britain.

Labour defence minister Maria Eagle confirmed that before the ban on direct exports, between October 2023 and August 2024, there were fourteen transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham, a UK military base in Norfolk, to Israel.

Eagle added, however, that “in keeping with the Government’s announcement on arms exports in September [2024], there have been no exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension.”

But evidence suggests that these transfers did not stop in September. The import data shows a further thirteen courier shipments of aircraft parts under “Customs Code 88” directly from the UK to Israel taking place from October 2024 to March 2025.

Eleven of the shipments were of items labelled as “parts of airplanes, helicopters, or unmanned aircraft”.

The Foreign Office refused to confirm to Drop Site News, who also saw the report, if these aircraft parts were for the F-35.

Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Labour Party and independent MP said: “The Government is yet to respond to our call for a full, public inquiry into the UK’s role in Israel’s military assault in Gaza. This shocking report could explain why. When will the UK government come clean about the reality of military cooperation with Israel? The public deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity – and we are not going anywhere until we have established the truth”.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Youth Movement said: “These findings prove what we long suspected: the British Government has been lying to Parliament and the public in an attempt to cover up its complicity in the genocide of our people. But while the Government enables the flow of weapons for war and ethnic cleansing, poll after poll shows the British people stand with Gaza and are demanding a ban on arms to Israel. Our movement will continue to build pressure and use this new evidence to escalate our tactics, working with workers, trade unionists, students, and community groups across the country to enact a people’s arms embargo and end Britain’s collaboration in the genocide.”

Byline Times requested the specific date of the February arms shipments from the Foreign Office, but they did not respond to the question. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “This Government has suspended relevant licences for the IDF that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza.”

“Of the remaining licences for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defence Forces but are for civilian purposes or re-export, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza. The only exemption is the F-35 programme due to its strategic role in NATO and wider implications for international peace and security. Any suggestion that the UK is licensing other weapons for use by Israel in the war in Gaza is misleading.

“The UK totally opposes an expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. We urge all parties to return urgently to talks, implement the ceasefire agreement in full, secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas, and work towards a permanent peace.”