Arms exports and BAE Saudi corruption inquiry

Speech by Sarah Ludford MEP delivered to European Parliament on Wed 17th Jan 2007

Mr President, I wish to support the warning in this report that irresponsible arms sales can lead to corruption. According to the OECD Anti Bribery Convention, to which the UK is a party, inquiries into suspicions should not be influenced by considerations of national economic interest, the potential effect upon relations with another state or the identity of the persons involved. Criterion 1 of the EU Arms Code obliges Member States to respect their international obligations and criterion 2 to respect human rights.

I would therefore love to have been a fly on the wall when British officials yesterday attempted to explain to the OECD's Working Party on Bribery why the Government instructed the dropping of an investigation by our Serious Fraud Office into alleged corrupt payments to secure arms sales by British Aerospace to Saudi Arabia. Were they able to dispel the widespread assumption that this was because the Saudis threatened to cancel the contract and give future contracts to France, in other words, to protect jobs? The Government's line was that it was necessary in the interests of national security, for fear that Saudi Arabia would break intelligence links. Unfortunately for the Government's alibi, the head of MI6 has refused to sign up to that thesis.

The Blair Government promised to be whiter than white. Instead it has set a shameful example for new and aspiring Member States on how corruption and arms sales are inseparable twins. The sooner the UK switches some of its manufacturing capacity out of arms, the better.