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.
Dannatt wrote to then Home Secretary Suella Braverman after speaking with the factory’s general manager and another senior Teledyne member on 22 December 2022, warning that “the threat from Palestine Action has more widespread implications for security and the economy within the United Kingdom”.
He said he would be “very grateful to receive assurance that the threat from Palestine Action is fully recognised by our security services and appropriate action [is] either planned or being taken”.
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Dannatt added that he had “undertaken to brief the Teledyne main board in the United States that the threat from Palestine Action in the UK is being suitably addressed”.
In September 2024, Dannatt contacted Dan Jarvis, Labour security minister, citing renewed “attacks on Teledyne facilities”, and saying he would be “very grateful to receive assurance from the current government that the threat posed by Palestine Action continues to be fully recognised by our security services and that appropriate action is being taken”.
An 'invested interest'
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.
Stuart had written to four of his superiors on 19 December 2022 saying that a senior Teledyne executive based in the US “had spoken to Lord Richard Dannatt about Palestine Action”.
“Lord Dannatt was chief of the army general staff. He’s now a life peer. He has an invested interest [sic] in this aspect of UK trade and investment, particularly military projects,” Stuart wrote in an email.
He said that Dannatt “wants to have some input” in the investigation, adding that he had said “it would not be wise to have a member of the House of Lords poking around in a live criminal case”.
In court, the prosecution denied there was any evidence Dannatt had tried to “influence” the investigation, saying he was “just asking for information”, a view which the presiding judge agreed with.
Dannatt is currently facing conduct inquiries over two sets of allegations that he broke parliamentary rules prohibiting peers from lobbying.
The UK government proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terror laws on 4 July, making it a criminal offence to be a member of or show support for the direct action group.
Since then, over 200 people have been arrested - including priests, vicars and former magistrates - after they were deemed by police officers to have expressed support for the group.
Last week a High Court Judge ruled in favour of Palestine Action and granted them a judicial review to oppose the UK government’s ban on the group.
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