BRITAIN’S politicians have written to the Trade Secretary over serious concerns about a reported move towards “unblocking” arms licences to Israel, campaigners said yesterday.

In the letter, led by Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr MP Steve Witherden, 58 parliamentarians told Peter Kyle that they were “extremely concerned” by the government’s apparent move towards lifting the arms licences to Israel that it suspended in September 2024, and the reported transfer of new F-35 fighter jets from a British air base.

Last month, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Mr Kyle said he would revisit Britain-Israel trade talks and the decision to pause arms export licences, arguing that the two issues were “intrinsically linked.”

But campaigners said that position was at odds with the government’s legal obligation to issue or suspend arms export licences in line with Britain’s domestic Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and its international obligations, including under the Genocide Convention.

Alongside a continued supply of spare parts for F-35 jets used in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, research indicates that Britain has played a key role in facilitating the transfer of the aircraft to Israel.

On January 21, it was reported that three new F-35s were transferred from the British air base RAF Mildenhall to Israel.

This was despite the government’s earlier acknowledgement that Israel was not committed to complying with international humanitarian law and suspended 29 of 350 arms licences to the country.

The partial ban included what has been described as an “F-35 carve-out,” allowing exemptions of components supplied through the global F-35 programme from the suspension.

A debate is due to take place in the House of Commons tomorrow on the government’s “obligation to assess the risk of genocide under international law in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Mr Witherden said: “The government mustn’t renege on its arms export control criteria now Gaza is away from the front pages.

“If the government were to weaken its commitment to international law in order to secure a trade deal, that would be frankly shameful.”

Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Katie Fallon warned that Israel’s genocide is “still ongoing,” adding: “It has been supported throughout by a constant stream of UK-made parts for the F-35 fighter jet.

“The UK government has admitted there is a clear risk these jets will be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza, but fought tooth and nail for two years to ensure their supply.

“The government is aware of hundreds of incidents of potential war crimes for which there has been no justice.

“Legally, this government cannot justify lifting any suspension on arms licences to Israel, as it continues to perpetrate genocide and apartheid against Palestinians.”

A spokeswoman for Stop the War Coalition, one of the organisers of the demonstrations for Palestine, called it unsurprising that ministers were “unblocking what was always an extremely limited suspension of arms licences.”

She said it had been “a token gesture at the height of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.”

“Now ministers seem to think or hope that we’ve forgotten the horror and the carnage they’ve been responsible for and continue to be responsible for since the so-called ceasefire conveniently wiped it from the news agenda,” she told the Star.

“But we have not forgotten, as 100,000 people on the streets of London last Saturday proved.”

The spokeswoman said that the anti-war movement will “stay on the streets until the genocide ends and the government stops arming Israel.”

The government was approached for comment.