The Political Influence of Arms Companies

Arms companies enjoy a close relationship with the Government that gives them immense influence over government decision-making. This influence is a key reason behind the high level of financial and political support for arms exporters by successive UK governments. The current Labour government is no exception.

While there are many opportunities for arms companies to gain access to and influence the Government – including lobbying companies, sponsorship and donations, and public-private partnerships – perhaps the most significant, and alarming, are:

The Revolving Door

The ‘revolving door’ is a key feature of the relationship between the Government and military industry: no other industry has attracted such a large number of high-ranking government staff while at the same time seconding many of its own employees to the same government department (the MoD).

The numbers of MoD staff seeking employment in arms companies have been so high that they amount to a 'traffic' according to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which regulates such moves. On average, between 1997 and 2004, 39% of all applications to the Committee were made by individuals working in the MoD. Since the early 1990s at least six government Ministers, including Michael Portillo, George Robertson and Jonathan Aitken, have gone on to work for arms-producing companies.

A large number of senior arms company executives have also moved into powerful positions within the MoD. From the limited information available it is known that between April 1997 and January 2003 at least twenty-two individuals from BAE Systems were seconded to the MoD.

DESO (Defence Export Services Organisation)

DESO is the MoD agency which exists solely to promote arms exports on behalf of companies. It employs 600 people and has always seconded its head from, and often delivered him back to, military industry. Its current head, Alan Garwood, was seconded from missile-maker MBDA, of which BAE Systems owns around a third.

The potential for conflict of interest is illustrated by a statement by Tony Edwards, former Group Managing Director at Lucas Industries and Chief Executive of the TI Group until his appointment as head of DESO (1998 – 2000). When questioned by the Select Committee on Defence in 1999 he said of his appointment as head of DESO 'I can say openly I am beholden to the industry and grateful to them for this top up but then I am working for them openly and overtly anyway.'

Advisory Bodies

Military industry is heavily represented on an extensive network of high-level advisory bodies, giving it further access to government. Tony Blair has established more groups of non-elected individuals to advise on government policy than any other British Prime Minister. Between May 1997 and December 1998 at least 295 new advisory groups were created, drawing in some 2500 members who were neither government officials nor ministers. Recently established European advisory groups offer arms companies further opportunity to influence policy on an even wider scale.

The deliberations of these largely publicly unaccountable bodies are generally secret and membership information can be difficult to obtain, but what we do know is that they afford military industry extraordinary access to high level government officials.

Further Reading

Who Calls the Shots? CAAT report, February 2005: PDF-450kb | Summary PDF-86kb
Call the Shots Campaign, launched in 2005