A minister appears to have ruled out the government publishing legal advice over whether Israel has breached international law in Gaza as pressure mounts for an arms sales ban.
Gareth Davies, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News there was a “longstanding convention” that prevents the government from making public any advice it receives from lawyers.
The Labour Party has demanded the government publish the advice after seven aid workers, including three British volunteers, were killed in an airstrike earlier this week, while the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have gone further in calling for arms exports to Israel to be blocked.
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Ministers have also been warned that if the legal advice finds Israel has broken international law, then the UK government would be obliged to suspend arms exports.
But speaking to Sky News this morning, Mr Davies appeared to rule out the prospect of sharing such advice publicly, saying it was “confidential”.
He said the UK had “one of the most robust systems of arms export controls in the world,” and the government had a “series of responsibilities to ensure that any licences that are granted by the government cannot in any way be contributing or facilitating violations of international humanitarian law”.
“There are robust processes in place to gather evidence to assess that, as well as advice that the government receives, and that advice is being constantly reviewed,” he added.
But pressed on whether the advice should be published, he said: “We have a long-standing convention that we do not do that.”
Mr Davies’ words come despite warnings from three former Supreme Court justices in a 17-page letter that called the present situation in Gaza “catastrophic”.
The letter warned that – given the International Court of Justice’s opinion that there is a plausible risk of genocide – the UK government is legally obliged to act to help prevent it.
Signed by more than 600 lawyers and academics, it warned that “the sale of weapons and weapons systems to Israel… falls significantly short of your government’s obligations under international law”.
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The government does not directly supply Israel with weapons but does grant export licences for British companies to sell arms to the country.
The letter was written after British security experts John Chapman, Jim Henderson and James Kirby were among seven World Central Kitchen aid workers who died when a convoy they were travelling in was hit on Monday – in what the Israel Defence Forces has called a “grave mistake”.
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On Friday Labour repeated its demand for the government to publish the legal advice, saying that if it did show there was a risk UK arms were being used to commit or facilitate law breaches then sharing weapons with Israel should “stop immediately”.
Labour’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator Ellie Reeves said: “The government have had this advice for close to a month now and haven’t published it. If the advice does say that, there are real questions about why they haven’t already acted.”
Ms Reeves said the government needed to make a statement in parliament on the issue so they could be held to account by MPs, who she said had been “left in the dark”.
Asked whether her party’s request meant that Labour would have to routinely publish legal advice if it were in government, Ms Reeves said: “We need to see this legal advice.”
She added: “I think you have to deal with things on a case by case basis but it is important that we see this advice, we are being kept in the dark about something incredibly serious.”
