The UK will halt arms sales to Israel if lawyers say it is acting illegally, deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has suggested.
The Government is under mounting pressure to share legal assessments of Israel's actions in Gaza following claims ministers have been warned it is breaking the law. Labour said there is "extensive plausible evidence" that the threshold for suspending arms has been crossed. And Foreign Secretary David Cameron has warned the UK's support for Israel is not "unconditional".
Mr Dowden admitted the UK has "specific concerns" but repeatedly refused to say what Whitehall lawyers had advised. In an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, the Tory frontbencher said: "We have some concerns about different areas of Israel's conduct. We are raising those concerns with Israel, but it's so important to remember we've gone from the horrors of six months ago to holding Israel to extraordinary high standards and it's right that we do so."
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has called on the Government for answers (PA)Last week a recording emerged of Tory MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, claiming Government lawyers had warned that Israel wasn't complying with international law. This has raised questions about whether arms sales should be halted.
Mr Dowden repeatedly refused to share the legal advice given to ministers. When asked if it would block weapons being sent to Israel if such advice is given by Whitehall lawyers, he said: "If it is the case, that we can't lawfully in accordance with the act do so, of course, we we won't supply those arms, but that's precisely the position for example, even in respect to the United States or any other country around the world. We rightly hold ourselves to a high standard and we hold the countries to whom we export arms to to a high standard and I think that's, that's what you'd expect."
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But he hit out at the "relish" critics of the Israeli Government were calling for sales to end, stating: "I think that Israel is is conducting a legitimate campaign and it is doing so in a very, very difficult environment where it is facing Hamas a terrorist organization that hides amongst its civilian population."
In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary David Lammy wrote: "The law is clear. If the legal advice says there is such a clear risk, sales of those arms must be suspended. If this advice has been given to the government, but ignored, the government may be in breach of domestic law.
"In light of the deaths of seven aid workers, including James Kirby, James Henderson and John Chapman, the ICC’s investigation, the ICJ’s interim ruling, numerous statements by international institutions including the UN, and your own claim that you are ‘worried’ that ‘Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law because this particular premises has been bombed or whatever’, there is plausible evidence that the threshold for suspending arms licences been crossed. However, determining this legally is the proper task of competent lawyers, not politicians."
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