Chris Bryant Also Misled Parliament

John McEvoy writes:

Last September, trade minister Sir Chris Bryant sat alongside foreign minister Hamish Falconer at a parliamentary hearing about arms exports to Israel.

By this time, the death toll in Gaza had surpassed 64,000, and the Labour government’s limited suspensions of arms export licences for Israel were in the spotlight.

Bryant, a former Anglican priest, told the trade committee that among licences still active were components for trainer aircraft, which he claimed could not be used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The chair of the committee, Liam Byrne, pushed back, suggesting that such equipment “could be used for training pilots who are then in combat over Gaza”.

After all, Declassified had previously exposed how parts for the M-346 aircraft, which Israel uses to train fighter jet pilots, were being shipped from Britain to Israel amid the genocide.

The components, manufactured by US arms firm Moog in Wolverhampton, had been sent to an Elbit Systems site in Hatzerim as well as to the Israeli ministry of defence.

“That is a perfectly legitimate question that I have asked myself”, Bryant responded.

“But the assessment is that the training of an aircraft pilot on such equipment would take so long that they would not be among the people who would be engaged in fighter combat in Gaza”, he added.

‘Flimsy excuse’

Declassified has now obtained Bryant’s briefing notes for that hearing which expose how he misled parliament on two counts.

The notes make no mention whatsoever of a time lag between training and actually piloting fighter jets, raising concerns that Bryant may have been making it up as he went along.

Yet by suggesting the issue of a time lag, Bryant appears to have inadvertently conceded that trainer aircraft parts ought to have been suspended had the Israeli pilots using them gone on to fly fighter jets over Gaza.

Data analysed by Declassified now indicates it can take less than a year for Israeli pilots to go from flying M-346 trainer aircraft to the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets which have been used to pummel Gaza.

The information suggests Bryant’s statement was factually incorrect, and adds weight to the argument that trainer aircraft parts should not have been exempted from the arms suspensions on Israel.

Indeed, according to an internal Foreign Office briefing obtained by Declassified, the M-346 is “used to train IAF fast-jet pilots” and “facilitates the development of an offensive capability”.

Campaign Against Arms Trade spokesperson Sam Perlo-Freeman told Declassified: “The M-346 plays a crucial role in training Israeli pilots for combat, for their genocidal bombing of Gaza, the brutal invasion of Lebanon, and the illegal war on Iran. These planes clearly facilitate Israel’s war crimes, and as such the UK should, by its own policy, have stopped the supply of UK components for them.

“They are using a flimsy excuse to allow these sales to continue, can’t even seem to get their own story straight about it, and appear to have misled Parliament. This is yet another aspect of the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. That complicity can only end with a complete arms embargo”.

Bryant did not respond to a request for comment.

Bryant’s briefing

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the trade department was asked to release all internal correspondence relating to Bryant’s appearance at the trade committee.

The request focussed on “any briefing notes, submissions, or speaking notes” prepared for Bryant which specifically addressed the issue of trainer aircraft exports to Israel. / Last month, the trade department released an annex of material entitled: “Extract of Briefing provided by [trade department] officials to Minister Bryant relating to trainer aircraft”.

The document shows how Bryant was specifically briefed on how to deal with the “tricky” issue of: “Why did you not suspend trainer aircraft or submarines?”

Importantly, Bryant’s briefing makes no mention of how long it would take to train Israeli fighter pilots.

In fact, the briefing simply argues that trainer aircraft components can continue to be exported to Israel because they have no “operational role in the present conflict in Gaza”.

It says: “Trainer aircraft have no combat utility and cannot be used with live ordnance without extensive upgrading. The licences for trainer aircraft components are therefore not within scope of the suspension for items in use in military operations in the Gaza conflict”.

When asked to review its original FOI response, the trade department further acknowledged: “Combat utility is the focus of any assessments made, rather than specific training durations”.

Bryant thus appears to have gone well beyond his brief in claiming that it would take so long for Israeli pilots to train on fighter jets that the trainer parts could not be useful for operations in Gaza.

Factually incorrect

Worse still, Bryant’s statement appears to be factually incorrect.

Evidence collected by Declassified shows it is not only possible but also likely that Israeli pilots have trained on M-346 aircraft and gone on to fly fighter jets over Gaza since October 2023.

After undergoing a six-month advanced course on the M-346, Israeli pilots typically require around a year of conversion and operational training before flying fighter jets in active operations, according to the Israeli air force (IAF).

Since October 2023, no fewer than 140 Israeli pilots have graduated from the M-346 programme, according to Israeli Air Force data.

At least 70 of those pilots graduated after September 2024, when the Labour government imposed partial arms restrictions on Israel.

“It’s very easy to make the transition from the M-346 to a real fighter jet because it’s very similar to the fighters”, said former IAF general Avi Maor.

“You learn how to fight and then do the transition to the real fighter. You don’t need to learn how to fight again with the real fighter, so you save a lot of hours”, he added.

In any case, Bryant had no basis to suggest an end date to the Gaza genocide and therefore could not have known whether UK-made trainer parts would be useful to Israeli fighter pilots.

Facilitation

If Bryant was merely shooting from the hip, the government’s only rationale for issuing trainer aircraft licences to Israel is that those parts are not used in direct attacks on Gaza.

Yet this argument also faces a significant legal hurdle.

The government’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria not only forbids the sale of items which might be used to “commit” serious violations of IHL but also those which can “facilitate” them.

It was this criterion which was cited by Britain’s then foreign secretary David Lammy when he announced arms suspensions to Israel in September 2024.

“The assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”, he said.

An internal Foreign Office briefing obtained by Declassified, dated October 2025, acknowledges that the M-346 is “used to train IAF fast-jet pilots” and while not “used for combat mission, facilitates the development of an offensive capability”.

In other words, the government privately conceded that UK-made trainer aircraft components enhance the operational capacity of a military which is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law.

At the same time, however, the Foreign Office and trade department have justified the trainer aircraft exemption by saying that “combat utility” is the only factor under consideration when issuing export licences.

The inference that can be drawn from this is that the government assesses fighter jets can be used by Israel to commit violations but training pilots to fly them does not amount to facilitation.

Applied within a criminal context, this would seem akin to a judge holding a gunman responsible for a shooting but not the person who knowingly trained them to shoot.

A spokesperson for the trade department commented: “We have suspended all licences for equipment for Israel that might be used in military operations in Gaza, with the exception of the special measures relating to the global F-35 programme.

“The suspension does not cover components for trainer aircraft, which are assessed to have no combat utility in Gaza. Ministers have written to the Business and Trade Committee to provide a full account of all extant military licences involving the Israeli Government, alongside the relevant assessments, which are kept under regular review”.

Profit motive

Internal documents seen by Declassified also raise the prospect that a profit motive may have influenced the government’s decision-making on trainer aircraft licences to Israel.

As of July 2025, 33 of the 55 extant military export licences for use by the Israeli government related to trainer aircraft components, amounting to 60 percent.

The cumulative value of those 33 licences was seemingly £27 million, which would represent over 95 percent of the total value of military items destined for use by Israel.

And while the government has allowed trainer aircraft parts to be sent to Israel, Britain’s Royal Air Force has also been thinking about purchasing its own fleet of M-346s.

FOI documents show how Italian arms firm Leonardo, the lead producer of the M-346, has been in direct contact with the UK government on this issue over the past two years.

In November 2024, a Leonardo director wrote to the Foreign Office about how Sir Richard Knighton, then Britain’s chief of the air staff, had voiced interest in the M-346 at an event.

“I’m not sure whether I need to be excited about this, but it’s unusual for a person of his stature to make statements of this sort, unless he’s very clear about the way forward”, the director wrote.

There was potential “to deliver up to 40 aircraft and Ground Based Training Systems into the UK”, representing a “huge business opportunity in the Italy-UK relationship”, they added.

Last September, Leonardo said it was open to its M-346 undergoing final assembly in the UK should it be selected as the replacement for the RAF’s current fleet of Hawk trainer aircraft.