“You're not going to get any sympathy from the British public by attacking national infrastructure”, he continued.
Murrison, himself a former Royal Navy medical officer who served in Iraq, said that he thought that any “criminal activity” by activists “needs to be dealt with severely”.
In August last year, five activists from Palestine Action were handed custodial sentences over disruption and over £1million in damage caused to defence firm Thales UK’s site in Glasgow in June 2022.
Thales and Elbit manufacture the Watchkeeper UAV, a drone used by British armed forces with intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability.
On Sunday, Thales’s site in Belfast was awarded a £1.16bn contract manufacture lightweight-multirole missiles (LMM) for Ukraine’s defence.
The deal comes after the Prime Minister announced the government’s commitment to increase spending on defence to 2.5 per cent of GDP by April 2027, prior to his visit to the White House to meet US President Donald Trump, who has long criticised European underspending on defence and over-reliance on US capabilities.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the new agreement was part of the “UK’s ironclad commitment to step up military support for Ukraine, whilst boosting jobs and growth at home”.
However, one defence worker, who agreed to speak to the JC on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned by the silence of politicians when it came to their intimidation at the hands of pro-Palestine activists.
“I wrote to my MP about it, and they will not publicly condemn the actions that they take, and that concerns me.”
They went on to claim that, because of activists’ disruption, they had been forced to stop work for a short period of time.
“It's a concern that we get disrupted”, they added, fearing the impact the disruption could have further along the supply chain.
Lord Spellar, who served as a defence minister in the Blair government and who spoke to the JC before the government’s announcement on Sunday, expressed unease not only about activists being able to disrupt the UK’s defence supply chain, but also what the disruption might mean for the UK’s reputation. He said: “Being a reliable partner for other countries, and ensuring that they're able to supply and resupply, particularly in times of crisis.”
Lorin Spellar (Image: UK Parliament)[Missing Credit]
Spellar also called for a thorough response to any disruption by pro-Palestine activists: “These people seem to think they're a law unto themselves; the police and the legal system ought to be cracking down.”
He added that the defence workers’ representatives and the companies themselves need to make themselves heard: “Unions seem to be starting to stand up for their members. They ought to be more vocal about that. And also, the companies need to be more robust and take action against those who are damaging their property.”
To him, the disruption is “hugely damaging to state and society”.
“Now we actually have a Labour government with a decent majority, one of the attractions for people to invest in the UK is the level of stability that we that we have,” he went on.
Spellar hoped that “authorities and the judiciary will protect that public stability.”
“The right to make your views known does not mean the right to smash up somebody's windows.”
Asked if, in Trump’s “America First” world-order, there might be further scope for UK-Israeli defence cooperation, Spellar was optimistic on the potential: “Israel has developed some very advanced and innovative systems. These are ones that we should look at what role they can play in our in our defence capability, and we should also look at what we can sell to them.”
However the longstanding supporter of Labour Friends of Israel said that the composition of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would make any collaboration between Israel and Britain much harder.
“The current administration is a disaster for Israel and for its people. That was my view before October 7”, he said.
“[Netanyahu is] doing exactly what they used to accuse Arafat of doing: never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
“If you look at the rapprochement with the Arab states that was moving along, which – I speculate here – could well have been the catalyst for the Hamas attacks: in order to derail them.
“Netanyahu has this obsession with the West Bank and, therefore, his opposition to the formation of a separate Palestinian state.
Spellar elaborated: “He cannot do a deal with the Saudis except on the basis of a separate Palestinian state, and otherwise he's then condemning Israel to permanent warfare.”
“I'm not saying the situation is easy; the other side are making it difficult. He is making it impossible”.
“I don't think that is, in the long term, sustainable for Israel.”
Dr Andrew Murrison MP (Image: UK Parliament)[Missing Credit]