THE Labour Government has refused to review Israel’s access to F-35 parts exported from the UK despite evidence that the planes have been used to bomb “safe zones” in Gaza.
Last September, Labour blocked around 30 of 350 UK arms export licences to Israel after accepting that there existed a “clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
However, parts for F-35 fighter jets were specifically excluded – despite media confirmation that the jets had been used by Israel to bomb the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza in July 2024.
Labour said F-35s had been excluded from the arms ban because they could not end exports without prejudicing the jets' entire global supply pool – an international network that manages and shares spare parts, maintenance, and logistics resources to ensure the operational readiness of all F-35s.
In a written question at Westminster, Labour MP Andy McDonald asked if Foreign Secretary David Lammy would instead look “to take steps with his international counterparts to review Israel's access to the F-35 global supply chain pool”.
In a response from Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer, the UK Government suggested that it had no such plans – instead issuing the boilerplate claim that the pool is "under constant review".
Falconer went on: “As set out in the Secretary of State for Business and Trade's statement of September 2, it is not currently possible for the UK to suspend licensing of F-35 components for use by Israel without prejudicing the entire global F-35 programme, including its broader strategic role in NATO and Western support to Ukraine.
“Therefore, as announced to Parliament in his statement of September 2, the Foreign Secretary advised, and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade agreed, that to ensure international peace and security it was necessary to take the specific measure of excluding exports to the F-35 programme from the scope of the suspension, but this exclusion should not in principle apply to licences for F-35 components which could be identified as going to Israel.
“Departing from the Strategic Export Licencing Criteria (SELC) to exclude F-35 licences from the scope of the suspension decision is consistent with HMG's published policy, which states that the application of the SELC is ‘without prejudice to the application to specific cases of specific measures as may be announced to Parliament from time to time’.”
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie denounced the statement as “utterly shameful”.
"Nobody can say that they don't know about the atrocities being inflicted on Gaza”, he said. “This genocide has taken place in front of our eyes and has seen some of the most worst war crimes of this century.
"For Labour to continue to export components for some of the world's biggest and most deadly fighter jets is utterly shameful and makes them utterly complicit in the destruction and the killing. For the Minister to talk about selling them to ensure international peace and security is beyond Orwellian.
"The death toll in Gaza is getting more horrific by the day, with tens of thousands of people having been killed as a result of the bombardment and many more dying from completely preventable causes and the destruction of the healthcare system.
"This will not be forgotten and will taint Labour's legacy like Iraq did to the last Labour government. The situation is desperate but Keir Starmer and his colleagues are putting arms company profits ahead of the rights and lives of Palestinians."
Last week, a poll found that 70% of people in Scotland think that the UK should block all arms exports to Israel.
