David Lammy contradicted as UK 'hands Gaza spy plane data to Israel'
READ MORE: This is what a nuclear attack on Scotland would look like
Lammy explicitly stated the UK was not sharing intelligence with Israel.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Lammy was asked: 'What support is being given to the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Defence Forces militarily by the UK? For example, RAF flights, which overfly Gaza. Is information from those flights being given to the Israeli military to help them conduct their war in Gaza?'
He replied: "No."
Foreign Secretary David Lammy (Image: PA) He was then pressed: 'It's been said before that that information was helping to locate and potentially release the hostages. So fine, that's a commitment from you, a clear commitment that information from RAF military surveillance flights is not handed to Israel to help them, for example, identify targets in Gaza?'
Lammy responded: 'We are not assisting and it would be quite wrong for the British Government to assist in the prosecution of this war in Gaza, we are not doing that and would and would never do that.'
However, UK Government sources have since confirmed to the Times that it is continuing to send spy flights over the besieged enclave and that the intelligence it gathers is being shared with Israel.
Sources told the paper that "intelligence gathered by undisclosed RAF aircraft and other British assets in the region is being handed over to the Israeli military so it has up-to-date information".
READ MORE: Otter cubs rescued from side of 'very busy road' by quick thinking festival goer
The National has previously reported on the spy flights, which are conducted by Shadow R1 planes and have taken off from the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus since December 2023.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has previously insisted that the data it gathers from the hundreds of flights which it has sent over Gaza is used purely in support of "hostage rescue".
The Shadow is flown by 14 Squadron, which is based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
While there appear to have been an apparent lack of surveillance flights from the Shadow R1s in recent days, the MoD has confirmed that they are "still ongoing".
An RAF source told the Times that they understood the Shadow aircraft had returned to the UK – with flight tracking data suggesting this took place on July 29 – but was unsure of which aircraft was now undertaking the surveillance activities.
Independent journalist Matt Kennard, who has done previous investigations on the spy planes, claimed a US leasing company had taken over the flights from RAF Akrotiri.
BREAKING: Gaza spy flights from UK base on Cyprus secretly shift to plane leased by company with billions in US military contracts
New flights are on blocked list, but we tracked US plane over Gaza on 28 July when pilot forgot to turn off transponder for 1st time in 20 months👇 pic.twitter.com/PR1YHh5AcM — Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) August 4, 2025
The MoD is yet to confirm whether it is currently paying private contractors for the use of their aircraft for the missions.
An MoD spokesperson told the Times: 'Since early December 2023, the RAF has routinely conducted unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza for the sole purpose of locating hostages.
"The UK controls what information is passed to Israeli authorities and only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authority.
'We do not comment on operational detail for security reasons.'
The National has also contacted the UK Government for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ofwat appoints interim chief executive after David Black departure
Ofwat has appointed an interim chief executive to take over from the outgoing boss as the embattled regulator prepares to be abolished. Chris Walters will take the helm from August 30, Ofwat announced on Thursday. It comes two days after the regulator announced that the incumbent chief executive, David Black, would be standing down after four years in the role. Mr Walters moves into the role from his current position as a senior director for the price review – the regulator's process for setting the price, service and incentive package for water companies for a five-year period. However, he will be overseeing Ofwat as ministers plan its dissolution in a major regulatory shake-up for the water industry. The government announced the move last month as part of its response to public fury over rising bills, sewage pollution and large bonuses for bosses. Ofwat may not be formally axed until at least 2027, with the process to overhaul the current system likely to be complex. The regulator said the board has made changes to the leadership structure to reflect the transitional nature of its work going forward. Currently, Ofwat oversees how much water companies in England and Wales can charge for services; the Drinking Water Inspectorate ensures that public water supplies are safe; while the Environment Agency and Natural England have regulatory functions to monitor firms' impact on nature. The regulators have faced intense criticism for overseeing companies during the years where they paid out to shareholders and accrued large debts while aging infrastructure crumbled and sewage spills skyrocketed. Under government plans, measures will be rolled out to merge their regulatory responsibilities into a 'single, powerful' regulator – one for England and another for Wales. It comes as one of 88 measures recommended by an independent review led by former Bank of England governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, which was commissioned by ministers to answer the widespread outrage over the ailing water sector. Ofwat said Mr Walters will be tasked with providing leadership for the organisation, but will also lead the engagement process with the government and industry as the recommendations are taken forward. As part of its own response to the crisis, Ofwat said it would allow firms to raise average bills from 2025 to 2030 to help finance a £104 billion upgrade for the sector as part of its 2024 price review. Elsewhere, Helen Campbell, Ofwat's senior director for sector performance, has been appointed as the executive director for delivery. Ms Campbell will also take up her new position from August 30, reporting directly to the board. In this role, she will take responsibility for ensuring the delivery of the £104 billion five-year expenditure programme. She will also oversee progress on the £50 billion pipeline of major infrastructure projects and the stabilisation of Thames Water, which is facing a severe financial crisis that has brought it to the brink of potential nationalisation.
Telegraph
3 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Brexit has been a success. Labour are slowly killing it
'Stop fighting the Brexit wars.' That's what some say, including some in my own party, when I insist on talking about Britain's relationship with the EU. Now it is obviously true that we face many major and urgent problems: the economic doom loop; super-high immigration; a public order problem exemplified by the illegal protest this weekend in support of Palestine Action; and much more. But these issues have a common thread: government ineffectiveness and ineffectuality. Much current frustration and fragility in British society stems from the fact that the government and the permanent state apparatus don't seem to be up to the job. The previous Conservative government, exhausted after an orgy of state authoritarianism never before seen in this country, became a purveyor of palliatives, almost a commentator on the country's difficulties, part of the problem rather than the solution. Labour promised something different. But almost immediately their own authoritarianism, their woeful out-of-touchness with the country, and now the alternately Leftist and damagingly progressive predilections of their own backbenchers have put them in the same position. Once again, everything is too difficult to handle. The underlying reason for this is that, during the long years of EU membership, our political establishment forgot how to run the country. They looked outwards to Brussels and to international institutions for help. Gradually it became easier to outsource decision-making than think hard about anything themselves. Even now, most are happier deferring to the European Court of Human Rights than exercising real control. In short, most of our leaders have simply forgotten how to define the British national interest and pursue it. This is why Labour keep telling us leaving the EU has been damaging and we must move back into its orbit. Unfortunately they have been offered the perfect backdrop for this argument by the mess the country is in. So it is not surprising, perhaps, that we get opinion polls telling us that Britons would now vote to Remain after all. But post hoc is not propter hoc. Leaving the EU may have preceded our current problems, but it is not the cause of them. Rather, it is a necessary step towards solving them. Having taken back control, it must now be exercised. As so often, the British people are clearer about this than their leaders. And an important YouGov poll this week, led by Dr Richard Johnson of Queen Mary University London, shows this unambiguously. The poll deliberately excluded any mention of the EU or Brexit, since these polarising terms tend to distort opinion by putting people immediately on their 'team'. Instead, it aimed to test real opinions about where power should sit. Voters were asked neutrally whether they thought that decisions across 20 policy areas, all largely or entirely subject to EU control while we were a member, should be taken by the UK Government, international institutions, or a mix. The answer was clear. Across all 20 areas, an average of 60 per cent (70 per cent if you take out don't knows) of all voters wanted policies decided by the British Government alone. This was consistent across all parties bar the Greens: 56 per cent of 2024 Labour voters and 57 per cent of Lib Dem voters thought the same. In short: people still want decisions about this country to be taken in this country – as they did in 2016. But Labour is doing the reverse. Its so-called 'reset' with the EU is based on a fallacy – the belief that there is popular support for what it is doing. After all, Labour have just signed away our right to set our food standards, but 65 per cent of voters – including a majority of every party including the Greens – think that the UK Government should control them. They have signed away our fishing grounds, but 55 per cent of voters think fishing policy should be decided by the UK. They defer to the ECHR on immigration, but 58 per cent of voters think the British Government should have the final say here too. That 58 per cent is a particularly relevant number in the week that the UK-France agreement on returns was ratified (in secret, by the way). That treaty, which enables us to return a few small boats arrivals in return for accepting a similar number of French asylum seekers, effectively outsources control. The French can refuse anyone we want to return, but will tell us nothing about the people they want to send to us. The YouGov poll says that 67 per cent of voters think this country should be able to refuse entry to foreigners who have been in prison – but France now decides whether we can actually exercise that control. The agreement is of course – we have come to expect this – almost laughably biased against Britain in other ways. We must meet all the costs of returns in either direction. France can refuse anyone with outstanding human rights or other claims in our justice system. And the number of returns they will accept is not even in the treaty and is, apparently, a closely guarded state secret. Labour's customary flaccid approach to EU negotiations delivered the same result here as it did in the reset. But – as we learnt under Theresa May – if you signal you won't walk away, you inevitably get a bad agreement. How depressing it is that our leaders still have not learnt, or do not care to learn, that lesson. The message of this week's poll is that Labour are walking on thin ice. Whatever the current political vibes, the majority of the British people are not up for signing away the powers Boris Johnson and I painfully won back in 2020. That's why we are right to keep trying to stop them. There is a wider lesson too for the Right. You don't stop fighting the war until you have won it. There is a political market to reverse the reset and to finish the job that was largely, but not entirely, done in 2020: in short, to make the UK including Northern Ireland a fully self-governing state once again, under our own parliament, setting our own laws. This week's poll shows the British people want our government in charge and actually exercising the powers they now have. The party that understands why that is important and necessary, unites behind it, and campaigns for it, is the one that will succeed.
Telegraph
3 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Starmer's failure to crack down on small boats boosts migrant hotel operator
One of Britain's biggest operators of asylum hotels has reported 'higher than expected demand' for its accommodation as Sir Keir Starmer struggles to crack down on small boat crossings. Outsourcing giant Serco reported 'consistent demand for our UK immigration services' despite the Prime Minister's pledge to 'smash the gangs' that smuggle people into Britain. Serco is one of three companies that runs housing for asylum seekers, sharing a £4.5bn, 10-year contract running until August 2029. Ministers have vowed to wind down the use of asylum hotels by 2029, vowing to end reliance on the system by addressing the backlog of claims and building government-owned accomodation. However, Serco's results suggest Labour is still struggling to get control of the asylum crisis. The company said: 'The reduction in revenue in our UK immigration contract was lower than we originally anticipated.' Nigel Crossley, Serco's chief financial officer, said: 'There's a bit of a decline, but it's running at similar levels to what we saw at the end of last year, so in the short term we don't see material movements on the revenue of that business.' Mr Crossley added: 'All the data we see says that the macro trends for migration into Europe are going to increase [and] stay strong for some significant period of time.' Serco said in its results: 'We expect migration will provide governments globally with ongoing challenges.' Ministers have been under mounting pressure to end the use of taxpayer-funded hotels to house asylum seekers, with around 32,000 people currently in this kind of accommodation. Hotels run by outsourcing companies have been targeted by protesters across the UK in recent weeks and riots broke out at asylum seeker accommodation last summer. Asylum hotels were originally ramped up as a temporary measure to deal with a backlog of arrivals since the pandemic. However, a surge in small boat crossings in the Channel has left the Government struggling to end the practice. Joe Brent, an analyst at Panmure Liberum, said: 'The boats keep coming and there is a legal requirement to house asylum seekers somewhere. 'Nimby-ism is blocking some of the ideas to find large-scale and cheap housing. So given the shortage of dispersed accommodation, I am sure that hotels will remain a feature for a while yet.' The National Audit Office, the government spending watchdog, recently predicted that accommodation for asylum seekers would cost more than £15bn over the 10-year contract to 2029, three times the initial £4.5bn estimated by the Home Office. The Prime Minister has pledged a series of measures to address the migration crisis, including a 'one in, one out' policy for arrivals from France and plans to share asylum hotel locations with food delivery companies to crack down on illegal working. Serco, which posted a 5pc rise in revenue to £2.4bn for the first six months of the year, said it broadly expects 'reduced' revenues from immigration services as Sir Keir pledges to end the use of asylum hotels. It is refocusing its efforts on the defence industry to cash in on Britain's rearmament boom. Serco earlier this year won a contract to run recruitment for the Army, Royal Navy and RAF. Anthony Kirby, Serco's chief executive, hailed a 'strong performance in the first half', buoyed by a 12pc surge in defence revenues. This was underpinned by contracts totalling more than £1bn from the Ministry of Defence to deliver maritime services for the Royal Navy. Serco has grown its order pipeline by 6pc to close to £12bn, rising to its highest in more than a decade. Profit rose by 2pc to £146m. Mr Kirby said that around a third of that pipeline was in defence, with another third in justice and immigration. The remaining portion is citizen services. He said: 'We continue to operate in buoyant markets with governments around the world seeking more for less, along with the need to invest in and increase defence capabilities. This gives us confidence in our future capability for growth.' Serco shares surged to an 11-year high on the back of the results, rising more than 4pc to 219p.
