Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch has claimed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was “using and politicising the law for political ends” over the decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel.

The former business and trade secretary said in a lengthy post on X/Twitter: “It is not true that the removal of Israel arms licences was a legal decision. Keir Starmer should not hide behind this fig leaf. It was *very* much a political decision… I know this, because as trade secretary, responsible for arms licences, I saw the legal advice.” 

She accused Labour of being scared of anti-Israel activists and contrasted that approach with her own time in office: “I made a considered decision to maintain all existing licences for arms exports to Israel. Union-backed civil servants threatened to stop work and go on strike. My response was not to make concessions but to make it clear that they were there to deliver the government’s agenda. Not their own.”

Badenoch continued: “The Labour government has once again prioritised the mob over UK interests, making politically charged foreign policy decisions that lack legal reasoning and weaken our position in the global fight against Iran and her terrorist proxies.”

The Tory leadership contender also questioned why the government reached this decision even though advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stated that "it has not been possible to reach a determinative judgement on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities."

“If it hasn't been possible to reach a judgement why are licenses suspended?,” she asked rhetorically before accusing the government of “playing around” with Britain’s defence industry and national security and harming Britain’s relationship with the United States and Israel.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer claimed that the decision to suspend 30 of the UK’s 350 arms export licences to Israel was a “legal decision not a policy decision” after he was questioned by opposition leader Rishi Sunak.

It was also reported yesterday by the Financial Times that as Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron received legal advice that Israel may have broken international humanitarian law but decided not to suspend any arms export licences as he did not think there was a clear risk that that items from the UK could be used in that way.

There is some disquiet in Labour about the government’s decision.

One Labour source told the JC that the government had managed to “pi** everybody off”. Some figures on the left of the Labour Party are apparently unhappy the government didn’t take tougher action on Israel: “Those on the left are saying ‘it is less than 10 per cent, why aren’t we scrapping it all?’ It seems like a pittance to them” while others are worried about the reaction from the Jewish community in their constituencies.

Yesterday, Christian Wakeford, Labour MP for Bury South, the parliamentary constituency with the largest number of Jewish voters in the north of England, met Foreign Secretary David Lammy to express concerns that he said were raised by many constituents.

In an interview with radio station LBC yesterday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy denied reports that suspending some arms sales to Israel has caused a rift with the United States. 

He also recognised the hurt caused by the timing of the announcement, on Monday were some Israeli hostages killed by Hamas were being buried, but claimed the matter was out of his control. Lammy said: “The level of trauma and heartache in the country [Israel] is tremendous. So I do recognise that.

“This is a process. It's a quasi-legal process and it's important that I follow that process and there's a lot of scrutiny on the process, quite understandably, and I didn't want to be in a position – I couldn't be in a position – where I didn't follow the course of that process.

“And I'm afraid that it was the process that determined the date and the reporting to Parliament and there and as my colleague, the Defence Secretary said, there is, there's no good day.”

Kemi Badenoch is one of four other candidates vying to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader. Other candidates are former, former foreign secretary James Cleverly, former home office minister Robert Jenrick, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride and former security minister Tom Tugendhat.

Former home secretary Priti Patel was eliminated from the Tory leadership contest yesterday in a vote of Conservative MPs.