Peer sought to 'influence' Palestine action case on behalf of US company

A member of the House of Lords lobbied two ministers over a criminal investigation into Palestine Action activists on behalf of a US military technologies company.

Richard Dannatt, an ex-army chief who works as an adviser to Teledyne Technologies, wrote to two Home Office ministers urging them to crackdown on activists after they targeted a factory belonging to the company in 2022 over sales of military equipment to Israel.

Four activists were convicted of conspiring to damage Teledyne’s factory in Presteigne, Wales, after they broke into the premises and caused £1m ($1.33m) worth of damage, according to prosecutors.

Three of the activists who targeted the factory pleaded guilty, while the fourth went to trial. In court in May 2023, Alex Stuart of Dyfed-Powys police, who was in charge of the investigation, expressed concerns that Dannatt was seeking to have some input in the case.

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