LONDON: The former head of the British Army and a House of Lords peer, Richard Dannatt, urged government ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the behest of a US arms company that employs him as an adviser, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
He wrote privately to two Home Office ministers, requesting that they confront the “threat” posed by the activist group, the newspaper reported.
It came after Palestine Action in 2022 targeted a factory operated by Teledyne, a US multinational that sells military technologies, and which has employed Dannatt as a paid adviser since the year of the demonstration.
Four of the group’s activists broke into the Welsh factory to protest the sale of arms to Israel. Two years ago, they were convicted of conspiring to damage the factory.
Palestine Action was listed as a terrorist organization in the UK last month after it carried out a demonstration on a British airbase, damaging Royal Air Force aircraft.
A court case that involved one of the four activists involved in the 2022 protest heard allegations that Dannatt was “seeking to influence” the criminal investigation into Palestine Action.
According to court information, the chief police officer leading the probe told Teledyne executives: “It would not be wise to have a member of the House of Lords poking around in a live criminal case.”
Dannatt said the allegations were “baseless” and he was unaware of the exchanges mentioned in court.
Separately, the life peer is under investigation over two sets of allegations relating to alleged lobbying, which Parliament expressly forbids.
Ten days after the 2022 factory protest, Sgt. Alex Stuart of Dyfed-Powys police, head of the resultant criminal investigation, sent an email to four of his superiors.
He had already spoken to the factory’s general manager, who had told him that a senior US-based Teledyne executive had “spoken to Lord Richard Dannatt about Palestine Action.”
Stuart wrote: “Lord Dannatt was chief of the army general staff. He’s now a life peer. He has an invested interest (sic) in this aspect of UK trade and investment, particularly military projects.
“Essentially, there have been an indication that he wants this case to be explained, and he wants to have some input on it.
“They haven’t explained exactly what he wants, however I have told them that it would not be wise to have a member of the House of Lords poking around in a live criminal case.”
Later that year, Dannatt held an online call with the factory’s general manager and a senior member of Teledyne.
He told The Guardian that the multinational had “contacted me to seek my assistance in raising concerns by the company to the government with regard to attacks on their premises.
“They briefed me on the Palestine Action attacks, and I then agreed to write to the home secretary.”
The former army chief sent a letter to then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, which declared his advisory role “at the outset.”
In the letter, he said: “The threat from Palestine Action has more widespread implications for security and the economy within the UK.
“The slow pace at which the British legal system has been working to take action against those involved in the trespass and criminal damage resulting from such ‘direct action’ has served to embolden Palestine Action and their continued recruitment drive for individuals who are prepared to commit arrestable offences.”
Last year, he again contacted the government to address new “attacks” on Teledyne facilities in the UK.
Company officials had again requested that he raise their concerns to the British government, he told The Guardian.
In a letter to Security Minister Dan Jarvis, Dannatt said he would be “very grateful to receive assurance from the current government that the threat posed by Palestine Action continues to be fully recognized by our security services and that appropriate action is being taken.”
