This week, I spoke about the arms trade at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party annual conference. I urged the Labour Party to move away from the enthusiasm for the arms trade that it has shown in the past and take a stand against the influence of arms companies within government.

The London arms fair has opened to a storm of controversy, with protests outside Parliament, the offices of arms companies and at the gates to the event itself.

Representatives of the arms industry and UK government are to speak at a seminar that extols the sale of arms to repressive regimes in the Middle East.

Multinational arms firm BAE Systems was grilled by MPs over the methods by which it proposes to pay almost £30 million to the people of Tanzania.