Richard Leonard: No legal advice needed. UK is complicit in war crimes

The UK Government’s licensing of UK-based armament firms to sell the tools of this siege and bombardment makes them complicit. We do not need to see a legal opinion to act on this.

An immediate ceasefire is required. The arms sales must stop.

This is not simply a test of international law. It is a moral and political imperative.

And there is an underlying economic context too, which goes beyond the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, towards the wider debate about arms sales.

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Huge profits made from the weapons of war by giant corporations are a disruption to the economy not a natural part of it.

Rising militarisation and rearmament cast a long shadow across the lives of millions. It costs jobs, rather than creates them.

Of course, some people are cashing in.

The Financial Times recently calculated that among the biggest corporations which have production facilities in Scotland, stock market valuations have sky-rocketed since 2022.

The valuation on Thales has jumped by 75%, on BAE Systems it is up by 110%, and on Leonardo it has leapt by 200%.

Because of the wholly unequal balance of economic power, this will not benefit the workers.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The state is not abstract. The actions of the government are not neutral. An incoming government could impose an ethical, transparent and tough arms control licensing system based on civil and human rights and international law.

Instead of accelerating so-called “defence” spending, it could put it in reverse and shift the balance to socially useful jobs and services.

The Scottish Government could promote defence diversification, and work with unions and employers to plan the economy on a path towards peace.

It could withdraw publicly funded grants and loans from companies which are part of the war machine. We could re-direct our pension funds.

It is my firm belief that peace and disarmament can be won if it is forged from a synthesis of ideas, organisation and movements: both long-established and newly emerging.

This work has already begun.

It requires parliamentary and non-parliamentary action. It will demand those on the left working together on a shared vision of an economy beyond the arms trade bound together by a renewed determination and unifying principle.

And it must start with a stop to British participation in Israeli military operations, the building of the national and international movement for a ceasefire, an end to the Israeli occupation, the return of all hostages and a recognition of the right to national self-determination.

But it most go further.

Because I believe that all that people in conflict zones across the world want, is the chance to live in peace.

The sale of arms stands in the way of this.

So we must build on the heightened public outrage at what is happening in Gaza and turn that into a movement for change, an unstoppable global movement for peace and disarmament.

Richard Leonard the MSP for Central Scotland and the former leader of Scottish Labour