Commenting on China’s continued attempts to ship arms to Zimbabwe, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Edward Davey said:

There is now a compelling case for the international community to take action and prevent any further transfer of arms to Zimbabwe. The regime is unstable and the risk of conflict represents a clear threat to the region.

Arms embargoes have been justified on similar grounds in other countries and there is no reason why Zimbabwe should be considered an exception. Read more »

The Liberal Democrats have long called for greater transparency and accountability in the Arms Trade. Following Thursday’s High Court ruling that the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into secret payments by BAE to Saudi Arabia should never have been dropped, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has  written to Gordon Brown urging him to re-open the investigation and hold a full inquiry into how this unlawful decision was reached.

Nick Clegg has challenged the Prime Minister to explain why he backtracked on his pledge to ensure that the role of Attorney General retains full public confidence, given that proposals in the draft Constiuttional Renewal Bill would give the Attorney General powers to block investigations or prosecutions on the pretext of national security.

He has also called on the Prime Minister to update Parliament on the progress of other investigations into alleged corruption by British companies, and on UK Government cooperation with the US Justice Department’s investigation into alleged bribery by BAE. Read more »

Commenting on today’s High Court ruling that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was wrong to drop its investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg said:

 This ruling confirms what we have said all along. The Government was completely wrong to drop this inquiry into serious fraud allegations.

 This investigation was blocked supposedly to protect our security, but it looks increasingly like it was done to protect BAE sales by appeasing the Saudi Government. Read more »