TOP brass and senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) received hospitality dozens of times from arms dealer BAE Systems in the last three months of 2018, new figures show.

Whitehall figures were treated to dinners, drinks and receptions with BAE on 38 occasions.

The revelation comes as Britain’s largest arms company published its half-year results today, which showed that earnings per share have risen by 10.6 per cent.

The company has profited substantially from arming Saudi forces bombing Yemen.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spokesman Andrew Smith told the Morning Star: “These meetings expose the cosy and compromising relationship between arms companies and government.

“The arms dealers aren’t spending all of this money on hospitality because they’re generous people and they want to be nice, it’s because they want to buy friends and further increase their influence.

“Civil servants and military personnel should not be normalising this terrible influence by quaffing drinks and partying with arms dealers.”

But a British government spokesperson defended the hospitality: “We take our export control responsibilities very seriously and operate one of the most robust export control regimes in the world.

“It is entirely normal for senior officials and their teams to meet with a range of charities and service associations, as well suppliers and contractors to the government.

“We spend millions of pounds with these suppliers on a whole range of products, and it therefore makes sense to have a relationship with them like we would with any other supplier.”

Top MoD figures clocked up 28 hospitality events with MBDA missile systems, 22 with Thales, 17 with QinetiQ, 12 with Northrop Grumman, nine with Raytheon and four with Lockheed Martin.

There were also six tie-ups with outsourcing giant Capita, including a “social evening for military and Capita personnel.”

Air Marshal Mike Wigston took his “spouse, family member or friend” to a reception with BAE Systems and a dinner with Northrop Grumman.

Major General Mark Gaunt also took a plus one to a dinner with Thales.

Civil servant Mark Milligan said he had an “informal meeting at [a] rugby event” with defence contractor QinetiQ twice on the same day.

Another, Martin Jewell, was treated to a “working lunch during [an] audit” with Raytheon. 

A third, Matt Harrison, had a fish and chip dinner with BAE.