A Guardian article published on 5 August 2025 has revealed that Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the British Army and current member of the House of Lords, lobbied UK government ministers on behalf of US defence firm Teledyne, after Palestine Action activists protested – and caused over £1 million in damage – at Teledyne’s Welsh factory.
Dannatt urged ministers to “crack down” on the activists, claiming they posed threats to national security and the economy. Of course, he was also an adviser for Teledyne. Despite his claims of non-interference, police transcripts disclosed internal objections to his involvement, although a judge ultimately ruled that he had not interfered in the active investigation.
The revelation arrives amid existing scandals: Dannatt was already under two separate investigations. One from the House of Lords watchdog concerning a covert video of him offering access to ministers for commercial clients, and another into lobbying on behalf of CF Industries to save a fertilizer plant – where he received honoraria and leveraged his peerage for legitimacy.
Although the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists concluded he had not engaged in unregistered lobbying, this narrow legal conclusion does not cleanse the deeply unethical optics.
A pattern of influence for private profit from Lord Dannatt and others
This isn’t an isolated lapse: rather, it reveals a pattern.
Former military elites—the so-called “generals for hire”—are turning their privileged status into lobbying assets for corporate interests, particularly arms firms. Investigative reporting from the Sunday Times exposed that retired defence chiefs, including Dannatt, offered themselves as well-connected fixers to industries at six‑figure sums—a clear conflict with public duty. The government’s lack of enforcement and sporadic investigations underscore bigger systemic gaps.
Adding to the rotten tableau is the broader pro-Israel lobbying apparatus that dominates British political life. Parliamentary groups like Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel wield outsized influence, pushing policies that align with US and Israeli military-industrial-colonial interests, and often marginalising dissenting voices or civil society organisations challenging arms exports to Israel. They thrive through the revolving door between think-tanks, advisory roles, and back-channel political access.
In May 2025, over 600 UK legal figures, including former Supreme Court judges, condemned continued arms sales to Israel as breaches of international law—and called on the government to cease exports immediately in light of credible genocide risk in Gaza. Yet Westminster remains unresponsive, reinforcing the impression that arms lobby influence trumps justice and accountability.
Government in the pocket of arms and Israel lobbies
These interconnected scandals point to a British state increasingly captured by the military-industrial complex. The government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation in June 2025—citing damage and intimidation—but largely ignoring Israel’s crushing violence and civilian suffering in Gaza speaks volumes about political priorities.
Meanwhile campaigners like Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) continue to highlight how arms export controls are manipulated for political convenience, even when civilian casualties mount.
Lord Dannatt’s lobbying on behalf of a foreign defence corporation, coupled with longstanding concerns about peers-as-lobbyists, suggests not merely misjudgments—but a corrupt convergence of privilege, money and influence. That senior figures can broadcast meetings with ministers as a valuable commodity, with impunity, betrays our democratic standards.
This episode should ignite public outrage and demand sweeping reforms: enforceable lobbying transparency, prohibition of paid access by former officials, robust arms export oversight, and thorough inquiry into the UK–Israel lobby’s penetration of policymaking. Until then, the government reveals itself less as national steward and more as taxpayer-funded facilitator of defence profiteering and geopolitical entanglement.
Featured image via the Canary
