Welsh Government accused of funding weapons supplier that exports arms to Israel
Emily Price
The First Minister has been accused of misleading the Senedd following a revelation that the Welsh Government had funded a weapons supplier that exports arms to Israel.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Amnesty International UK found that Welsh ministers gave £500,000 in grant funding to Senior – a company that exports military equipment directly to Israel.
Weapons exported by the company include component parts for F-35 fighter jets and Apache gunships.
The Israeli–Palestinian war was triggered when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on October 7, 2023.
Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.
More than 59,000 Palestinians – including thousands of children – have been killed in the conflict so far, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
As well as bombs, Palestinians are now also facing a deadly surge in malnutrition and starvation amid an aid blockade.
‘Financial support’
In December 2024, Baroness Eluned Morgan told the Senedd: “No Welsh Government financial support has been provided to companies in Wales who export arms to Israel since the 7 October attacks.”
But Amnesty International says this is not the case and has condemned the Welsh Government for awarding public funds to build weapons despite public assurances.
The global non-governmental organisation focused on human rights says that further FOI requests exposed that the Welsh Government does not conduct human rights due diligence checks before awarding public money to private companies.
Amnesty warned that this means there are no guarantees that public money isn’t supporting weapons used in potential breaches of international law.
Genocide
Glenn Page, Amnesty International’s Government and Political Relations Manager in Wales, said: “The Welsh Government has quietly funded a company supplying weapons to Israel – despite mounting evidence of war crimes and genocide being committed by Israel against Palestinian people in Gaza.
“This directly contradicts what the First Minister told the public. It’s deeply concerning that we only know this because of FOI requests – not because of transparency from the Welsh Government.
“Public money must never help fuel war crimes. There must be full transparency and accountability, beginning with an urgent, long-overdue review of public funding and investment, and the immediate introduction of a robust framework for human rights due diligence.”
‘Shameful’
Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth described the revelation as “both shocking and shameful” and accused the First Minister of misleading the Senedd.
Mr ap Iorwerth said: “The revelation that the First Minister misled the Senedd about providing £500,000 of Welsh taxpayer money to a weapons manufacturer whose products may have been used to fuel Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people is both shocking and shameful.
“The First Minister claimed that no Welsh Government financial support had been provided to companies in Wales exporting arms to Israel since October 2023, but we now know this is not true. The Labour Welsh Government have serious questions to answer.
“Plaid Cymru once again calls on the Labour UK Government to impose a complete arms embargo, recognise Palestinian statehood, and implement further sanctions on the Israeli government at once.
“The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the horrors happening every single day in Gaza.”
We asked the Welsh Government if the First Minister had deliberately misled the Senedd.
A spokesperson did not answer the question directly, but said: “Senior UK is an automotive company based near Caerphilly manufacturing parts for electric vehicles, including buses.
“We provided a grant for them to renovate a building on the site in Crumlin which is expected to create and safeguard over 50 automotive jobs in the area.”
Earlier this year, the Senedd reiterated its support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and urged the Welsh Government to “review public sector procurement and investments to ensure that ethical standards are upheld.”
Despite supporting this call, no review has taken place.
Amnesty International has called for the Welsh Government to support an end to arms exports to Israel, conduct an urgent and transparent review of all public funding, procurement, and investment policies and introduce mandatory human rights due diligence checks for any company receiving public money.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
This is scandalous Eluned Morgan.
Shameful, but no surprise
it’s true to say that WG has invested in a subsidiary of Senior plc, but the company is not a military contractor and doesn’t manufacture weaspons. It is part of a larger international group supplying components across aerospace and automotive sectors. The article even says the operations in Wales are for bus and automotive components! Any involvement in defence-related supply chains is through its aerospace division (not receiving support from WG), which produces primarily civilian aircraft parts anyway. To equate this to weapons production and export o Israel is misleading, and a tenuous link. You could argue Airbus, Barclays and… Read more »
WH provided a grant to this company. The link is less than tenous. Are you happy for companies In the UK to keep supplying weapons to a an evil and ungodly zionist government who are murdering an entire semitic Palestinian population in Ghazza and destroying their homes in West Bank?
“WG”
Your response is far too logical for most of the commentors on here. While I could cheerfully bomb Israel to extinction for what it’s done in Gaza I can recognise that a lot of companies like Senior are very low down in the supply chain producing mechanical components that have an array of applications other than offensive military kit. The primary targets for censure are those who produce weapons and offensive systems like the bombs, the guns, the drones and the aircraft.
How can you guarantee the parts they are developing in Crumlin will not be fitted to weapons systems? The high standard of due diligence required to ensure this was done has not been articulated by WG?
Well thank you! I think I’m right in saying there is zero evidence the Welsh operations are even supplying components to the military, let alone acting as a ‘weapons manufacturer’ , according to the Plaid leader. This article is poor journalism.
It’s actually an eye popping quote from a potential FM candidate. As an ex journalist himself, you would have thought some critical thinking and verification would have been applied before putting his name to that quote.
I think it is brilliant journalism bringing to the forefront the topic of UK supplying arms to a nasty cruel zionist government intent on wiping out a semitic Palestinian race in Ghazza and West Bank. Despite the efforts of some to suppress free speech and press in UK, nation.cymru continue to highlight the atrocities and our connections to this region. So thank you nation.cymru for all you do. Allah will bless you for all you do and curse those that carry out this genocide and all who support it.
What the Netanyahu regime is doing to Gaza is no less horrid than what Putin is doing to the Ukraine.
The world has rightly sanction Russia including banking, oil and mining companies.
They should rightly totally sanction Israel for the same crimes against humanity.
I agree with you.
But my point is – the article, and the plaid leader, are saying WG are supporting a company who exports weapons to Israel. Politely speaking, this is misleading.
It’s not misleading. Your way of reasoning is incorrect.
Nato took military action against Serbia when they were ethnically cleansing Kosovo…I fail to see how Israel is acting any differently
Who is ethnically cleansing the zionists?
I understand the anger behind this comment, but comparing Israel’s actions to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine oversimplifies a deeply complex situation. Israel is defending itself from a terror organisation that deliberately targets civilians and uses its own people as human shields. No country would tolerate rockets fired at its cities or terrorists tunnelling under its borders. Sanctions meant for an aggressor like Russia don’t fit a democracy fighting for its survival in a region where it faces existential threats daily.
Absolutely correct. I am very disappointed Rhun has made such an asinine and ill-informed comment. Is there no professional adviser in Plaid Cymru with whom he consults before issuing such comments?
Are you as disappointed as you should be in the evil behaviour of the zionist government?
And you are ,Naive we have seen Companies stating they produce parts for world wide distribution but not directly to Israel ,yet these products find their way into the Israeli supply chain via third parties to avoid any criticisms or legal difficulties .
True. I don’t think he is naive though. I think deceit and and misdirection is involved.
I don’t think the Welsh Government should be giving hundreds of thousands of pounds to any private company, let alone one linked to a wider business of arms supplies. When will this propping up of private companies with public money stop? It’s a lose lose situation. Public money is handed over but private companies are rarely held responsible for any problems. Shareholders never lose out. Directors don’t miss out on huge bonuses but they always seem to need propping up with public money too. Similar things happen in the NHS when it’s left to pick up the damage or rectify… Read more »
I respectfully disagree. Investing in companies helps future-proof our economy by supporting new industries and leaving jobs for our next generations. In this case the WG is supporting a company making components for buses and EVs, which are both growth industries (they’re not making weapons in Wales contrary to what this article says!). In the long run, creating new jobs reduces the government spending money on benefits, health, social care etc so is a net benefit to the country . If anything we don’t spend anywhere supporting businesses, certainly compared to US or China.
Do you condemn the evil actions of the zionist government in carrying out the genocide in Ghazza? Otherwise your argument comes through a highly tinted but very thin and fragile glass pane.
The Welsh government should only invest in companies by way of company shares !
The Welsh government can also take the respective dividends when declared.
Until there is a comprehensive audit of sales, end user invoices and deliveries you cannot be a 100% certain that the components have not found their way into other parts of the parent business that supply equipment to defence manufacturers.
Why give them a grant before carrying out such an audit?
No dealings with a nation that is starving people to death on purpose and using them for target practice. Come on Welsh Labour, don’t be that government.
Too late, they already are “that government “.
Welsh Labour and hypocrisy go hand in hand with each other. If it’s not their UK Labour Government capitulation, or receiving campaign money from a twice convicted criminal who damaged the Welsh environment, can now add this to their wall of shame. But to use Welsh taxpayers money fund a weapons company that’s supplied Zionist apartheid Israel’s mass murder of over 60,000 Palestinian civilians , some who are now as I speak slowing starving to death, absolutely disgusting. If Labour wasn’t toxic enough, can now add war criminal to their shambolic record in office. May 2026 Senedd Election can’t come… Read more »
This factory in Caerphilly make the sensor probes which detect air pressure, humidity and aur temperature. Most are fitted to EVs and high end motor vehicles that display such matters onto the dash. They are also fitted to civil airliners such as the airbus fleet. So good is the quality they are also the preferred fitting for F35 fighter jets, some of which are operated by the Israeli air force. The only question in my mind is why a grant of £500,000 was necessary. The workforce in the South Wales valleys is second to none, and produce such hight quality… Read more »