Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
Arms firms skew Britain’s China policy through the Aukus pact
Foreign Office documents reveal ministers’ cosy relationship with weapons manufacturers, as they eagerly seek industry input on a confrontational strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
SUNS OUT, GUNS OUT: The Royal International Air Tattoo is an air show for the whole family, and an arms fair for a select few

IF YOU want an illustration of how the arms industry helps push Britain’s foreign policy towards confrontation, you could look at some documents I got from the Foreign Office about the Aukus pact.

They show that Foreign Office ministers are really keen on hanging out with bomb- and missile-makers and asking them what they need from our foreign policy.

Aukus is a very big deal in political circles which gets much less press than it deserves. Aukus is the Australian-UK-US deal signed in 2021 to increase military spending by the three nations to “deter” China from getting too big for its boots.

NHS: digital dangers abound

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he hosts a VJ Day commemorative reception in the garden of 10 Downing Street, London, August 14, 2025
Features / 5 September 2025
5 September 2025

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of  Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Defence Secretary John Healey (third left) and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu (second left) view a long-range air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missile, during a visit to MDBA in Hertfordshire, July 9, 2025
Features / 22 August 2025
22 August 2025

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds
Features / 8 August 2025
8 August 2025

SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds during a visit to Horiba Mira in Nuneaton, to mark the launch of the Government's Industrial Strategy, June 23, 2025
Features / 25 July 2025
25 July 2025

Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Similar stories
HMS Spey in Brisbane, Australia ahead of the England v Nigeria Women's World Cup match. The arrival of the state-of-the-art Offshore Patrol Vessel HMS Spey marks the first visit of the Royal Navy to Brisbane since the HMS Monmouth in 1995. Picture date: Monday August 7th, 2023
Features / 15 August 2025
15 August 2025

From 35,000 troops in Talisman Sabre war games to HMS Spey provocations in the Taiwan Strait, Labour continues Tory militarisation — all while claiming to uphold ‘one China’ diplomatic agreements from 1972, reports KENNY COYLE

Channel Migrants
Features / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

HELD IN CONTEMPT: Elbit has faced a long campaign of sabotag
Features / 4 April 2025
4 April 2025
Israel’s number one death dealer supplying the IDF in its murderous campaigns against the Palestinians is now actively wining and dining our military top brass, looking to flog its blood-soaked wares, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
PALESTINIAN APOCALYPSE: (L to R) James Cleverly; the Hermes
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
SOLOMON HUGHES looks at British-Israeli arms dealing and Labour grandees lining their pockets by pawning the family silver