UK’s ‘double lock’ on arms exports to Israel has led to no new licence suspensions, CAAT says

Britain’s “double lock” on arms exports to Israel has resulted in no additional export licences being suspended or revoked, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has said, accusing the government of failing to match its condemnation of Israeli war crimes with action.

The organisation challenged reports suggesting that further licences had been suspended following Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s announcement of the policy on 8 September.

Speaking in the Commons during an announcement on banning settlement trade, Miliband said the government would “refuse all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation”.

However, according to a parliamentary answer cited by CAAT, a minister confirmed on 16 September: “We have also reviewed all extant licences for exports to Israel on the same basis…No additional licences have been revoked or suspended since 8 September 2026.”

The minister added: “This is largely because licences for items that might materially contribute to the occupation have already been suspended because of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza conflict.”

CAAT said 29 licences had initially been suspended and 56 applications refused since the first restrictions were announced in September 2024. It stressed that these measures should not be presented as new suspensions resulting from the “double lock”.

The organisation also criticised the continued licensing of trainer aircraft and their components. In a parliamentary answer published on 21 September, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said the government assessed that trainer aircraft were not used in Gaza and did not materially contribute to Israel’s illegal occupation.

CAAT argued that such aircraft enable pilots to train before participating in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and supporting its ground forces.

The government has also maintained an exemption allowing exports of F-35 components into the multinational programme’s global supply chain.

READ: Burnham apologised. Britain’s arms licences tell a different story

Defending that exemption in the Commons, Miliband said “those who say we should stop supplying parts to the global supply chain are actually advocating the downing of the whole programme, which is crucial to our NATO and other allies.”

The criticism follows Miliband’s speech to Labour’s conference on 28 September, in which he acknowledged public anger over the treatment of Palestinians.

“I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you, you were right.”

“[W]e have reset our approach”, Miliband added. “We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. And we match words with actions.”

His conference speech did not mention arms sales. According to CAAT, when challenged by Channel 4 over international humanitarian law assessments, Miliband defended what he called “robust processes”. He also referred to the “increasing evidence of war crimes” and said Labour had been “too slow” to call out what was happening.

CAAT spokesperson Leo Verity said:

“Government recognition of ethnic cleansing, Israeli settler-terrorism and of the illegality of the occupation is the first step to ending UK complicity. But for the brutalised Palestinian people, all that matters is action, on arms sales and beyond. Right now it seems that the Burnham government is hot on talk but cold on action, with the ‘double lock’ on arms to Israel looking more like ‘doubling down’.

“The government continues to defend its unprecedented licensing ‘carve out’ for F-35 fighter parts, despite its key role in the Israeli genocide, with the jets being used at five times the normal rate since 7 October 2023, including in ‘beast mode’. Such a position is morally indefensible.

“It is also inexcusable that arms licences covering items like components remain unaffected by the ‘double lock’ policy. These include trainer aircraft for the IDF and incorporation licenses that ensure the flow of shipments on which the Israeli arms industry relies for the production of their own arms exports,

“For the many Palestinians being displaced if not slaughtered by Israel daily, it is not too late for Britain to act. That means matching words with actions: the UK must implement a complete, two-way arms embargo, investigate every single Briton who served in the Israel Defence Forces during the genocide, and halt all intelligence sharing with the apartheid regime.”

READ: Report: UK’s ‘double lock’ on arms to Israel suspends nothing