Labour demands suspension of riot gear exports to US amid George Floyd protests

Labour’s Emily Thornberry has demanded the suspension by the UK government of riot control equipment exports to the United States amid violent police responses to American protesters.

Writing to her opposite number Liz Truss, the Shadow International Trade Secretary said that law enforcement in the US has used “excessive force in response to these protests” since the murder of George Floyd.

Noting that it is UK policy to “refuse licences for the export of arms and equipment that might be used for internal repression”, Thornberry concluded that exports to the US are now “an obvious matter of concern”.

Labour has called on the government to publish a list of all current export licences to the US of riot control projectiles and equipment and to suspend all existing licences until their use has been determined.

Thornberry said: “The British public deserve to know how arms exported by this country are being used across the world, and the American public deserve the right to protest peacefully without the threat of violent repression.”

President Trump threatened to deploy the US Army against Black Lives Matter protesters on Tuesday, and has since been accused of “fanning the flames of division”. Demonstrations have continued in dozens of US cities.

The protests were sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis. Police officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while he said “I can’t breathe”.

Floyd suffered a cardiac arrest while being restrained, an official post-mortem examination found. Several days later, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Below is the full text of Emily Thornberry’s letter to Liz Truss.

I am writing to ask you as a matter of urgency to address a number of serious questions about the export of riot control equipment to the United States, following a week when people across America have taken to the streets to demand justice for the murder of George Floyd and all the other Black Americans whose lives have been lost as a result of police brutality.

These protesters are calling for the basic human rights of Black people to be respected, for them to go about their daily lives without the threat of police violence, and for all of us to take action to dismantle the structural and institutional practices which entrench racism in our societies.

In cities across America, we have seen law enforcement authorities using excessive force in response to these protests, including against children and members of the media. Donald Trump’s statement yesterday threatened the deployment of the US military to escalate this response, and took place as peaceful protesters were tear-gassed and beaten nearby by federal police.

As you know, it has been the policy of successive governments over the past two decades to refuse licences for the export of arms and equipment that might be used for internal repression in the countries to whom they are being sold. It is therefore an obvious matter of concern if any exports from the UK have been used in the response to the ongoing protests in the United States.

According to your department’s latest Strategic Export Controls: Country Pivot Report, the UK has recently issued licences for the export of a variety of riot control projectiles and equipment to the United States, including anti-riot/ballistic shields, anti-riot guns, components for anti-riot guns, portable riot control electric shock devices, and tear gas/riot control agents.

If there is a risk that any of these riot control projectiles and equipment are being used in the United States against peaceful, unarmed civilians, then the government must act immediately to stop their export. I would be grateful if you could therefore as a matter of urgency:

a. Publish a comprehensive list of all current export licences to the USA of riot control projectiles and equipment, along with all available end-user data to clarify who has purchased these items and for what declared purpose within the last five years; and

b. Suspend all existing licences and halt the issue of any new licences for the export of riot control projectiles and equipment to the United States until you have determined whether any of these items are being used in response to the ongoing protests, or risk being used in the coming days if the US military is deployed as part of that response.

I’m sure you will agree that, at a time when Donald Trump is gearing up to use the US military to crush the legitimate protests taking place across America over the murder of Black civilians, it would be a disgrace for the UK to supply him with the arms and equipment he will use to do so.

If this were any other leader, in any other country in the world, the suspension of any such exports is the least we could expect from the British government in response to their actions, and our historic alliance with the United States is no reason to shirk that responsibility now.

Indeed, because our alliance is above all based on the values we share with the American people, that is all the more reason why we must not supply arms and equipment that Donald Trump is willing to use to attack his own people, in total contravention of those values.

I hope that you will investigate these points and provide me with an urgent response. The British public deserve to know how arms exported by this country are being used across the world, and the American public deserve the right to protest peacefully without the threat of violent repression.

Yours Sincerely,

Rt Hon Emily Thornberry MP
Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade