Anti-war campaigners slam Burnham’s arms support for Saudi Arabia

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Your Party parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn said the move formed part of a pattern of intervention in the Middle East under Mr Burnham.

The former Labour leader said: “Helping the US to bomb Iran. Now, helping Saudi Arabia to bomb Yemen. This is a terrible and shameful decision, which drags Britain further into conflict, deepens its complicity in Saudi war crimes and proves that no lessons have been learned whatsoever.”

The Stop the War Coalition also criticised the move, saying that “while the Trump administration has repeatedly said it will not actively militarily aid the Saudis, Burnham promises to help them ahead of his meeting with the president.

“The Prime Minister should be actively opposing Trump’s illegal war on Iran, not taking the UK further into Middle East conflicts.”

The group said that “instead of helping Saudi Arabia against the Houthis and keeping on arming Ukraine rather than calling for a ceasefire and negotiations,” Mr Burnham should use his meeting with US President Donald Trump “to oppose these wars which are bringing so much misery to so many.”

Flying to New York prior to his first encounter with Mr Trump, Mr Burnham told reporters that “we have received a request from Saudi Arabia for military support and I agreed to that request for defensive air-to-air refuelling.”

Britain has long backed the Saudi assault on Yemen with arms and other support, but Mr Burnham was told that he should be offering Yemen reparations instead.

A recent report by the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Transition Security Project argued that “Britain should pay reparations to the people of Yemen for its role in crimes committed against them by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their coalition allies during the Yemeni civil war.” 

It added: “By our calculations, a windfall tax on profits made by two leading British arms companies from weapons used by the Saudis during the war could raise up to £3.9 billion.

“With the British state matching this sum, a reparations payment of £7.8bn would help address the urgent humanitarian needs in Yemen, which British policy has helped to create, and provide a foundation for Yemen’s economic recovery.”

Mr Burnham claimed his action was driven by a desire to help with cost-of-living pressures intensified by the war in the Gulf as well as “acting to secure the interests of Britain.”  

He also said he would tell Mr Trump to “end the conflict” in the Gulf “as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Stop Trump Coalition condemned the news that Mr Trump is to visit Manchester for the the G20 summit next year, pledging that protesters would turn out “in numbers again to make clear that Burnham needs to break with Trump, not continue to roll out the red carpet to an authoritarian.”

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