London - British members of parliament accused the Labour government yesterday of breaching its own ethical guidelines on arms exports by granting licences for sales of spare parts for Hawk jets to Zimbabwe.
A parliamentary inquiry said that the issuing of licences for arms sales to Zimbabwe had undermined a European Union resolution and "seems to have constituted a breach of the UK's national criteria on arms exports". But the Foreign Office Minister, Mr Peter Hain, defended the government's arms export policy and said officials had moved to correct mistakes such as the Hawk spare parts sale.