Westminster group shut down over Israel funding
A cross-party group of MPs and Lords has been shut down, after Declassified revealed it had taken money from a state-owned Israeli arms company.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Defence Technology received at least £1,499 from RUK Advanced Systems Ltd, which sells missiles and torpedoes.
The company is part of the defence giant Rafael, which is owned by the Israeli government.
The APPG took its website offline after Declassified exposed the donation in July.
Rules say that APPGs should not “accept the services of a secretariat funded directly or indirectly by a foreign government”.
Our findings triggered an inquiry by the parliamentary standards commissioner into the group’s co-chair, Conservative MP Neil Shastri-Hurst, over “due diligence of funding”.
The inquiry is ongoing, having expanded to cover other potential breaches of the rules.
According to its now-defunct website, the APPG offered companies “opportunities to network with MPs” and a chance to “gain visibility”.
The group’s closure was first reported last week by Democracy for Sale and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as concerns were also raised over a “glaring inconsistency” in the lobbying rules.
A loophole meant that former Conservative adviser, James Clark, was allowed to set up the APPG’s secretariat just six months after leaving a job at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) – despite rules that normally ban ex-advisers from lobbying for at least a year.
Responding to a freedom of information request, the MoD reportedly said that restrictions did not apply because Clark’s role was “within central government” and “directly in support of a parliamentary body”.
However, parliament’s website makes clear that APPG are “informal” groups and “have no official status within parliament”.
‘Lobbying’
The APPG on Defence Technology gained 31 corporate partners to fund its “independent” secretariat, since it was set up last year.
They included American defence firm Lockheed Martin, which is the primary producer of F-35 fighter jets used by Israel.
Between them, the partners pumped more than £60,000 into the APPG to cover a 12 month period.
Steve Goodrich of Transparency International told newsletter Democracy For Sale: “When an APPG is funded by major defence contractors and explicitly aims to ‘promote engagement’ with the industry, it’s functionally operating as a lobbying vehicle – regardless of its classification.
“Labour promised to strengthen lobbying oversight, but cases like this show we need immediate action to close regulatory loopholes before they become established practice.”
The inquiry over Israeli funding has not stopped the APPG’s members from continuing to operate among defence companies, however.
Among them are Labour MP Fred Thomas, who served as the group’s co-chair. He is due to speak at DSEI, the defence and security trade exhibition, in London tomorrow in an event about “autonomous ships”.