UK blocks Labour MP from asking about Israeli bombers using British airbase
For months parliamentarians have questioned the British government about the role of a Royal Air Force military airbase on the island of Cyprus, just a 40 minute flight away from Tel Aviv.
From there, RAF shadow aircraft have conducted regular surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel's war on the besieged enclave.
In response to questions about these flights, the Ministry of Defence has insisted they are in support of "hostage rescue".
Over the past few months, MPs have asked the armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, several questions about the airbase on the former British colony. They were all answered.
Until this week when Labour MP Kim Johnson tabled a question on Israel's use of the airbase.
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"What assessment has [the minister] made of the potential conflict of the Israeli government access to the use of RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus for military options?" she asked.
On Tuesday, she was given the following message: "THE GOVERNMENT HAS BLOCKED QUESTIONS ON THE USE OF MILITARY BASES".
The next day in the House of Commons, Johnson raised a point of order. She noted that six recent questions about the activities of RAF Akrotiri were all answered.
"Under this new ruling, all would have been ruled out of order and automatically blocked, yet they were allowed to be tabled," Johnson told the deputy speaker, Judith Cummins.
Cummins responded that the armed forces minister had previously said the government would not "comment on any foreign nations’ military aircraft movement…within UK airspace or on UK overseas bases".
She added: "It is not the Table Office but the government that have blocked questions on this specific subject."
This clarified that it is specifically questions on foreign nations' activity - in this case Israel - on the airbase which the government has blocked.
MEE has asked the MoD for comment.
'What does this government have to hide?'
There have previously been reports of Israeli fighter jets using the Akrotiri base. In February last year British officials asked Israel not to land its F-35 jets for technical assistance at the airbase, a previously long-standing arrangement, until the war in Gaza was over.
Another arrangement allowing Israeli helicopters to carry out exercises on the base was also reportedly scrapped.
'I am deeply concerned that such an operational decision will now prevent vital scrutiny and oversight by parliament on military bases'
- Kim Johnson MP
No details - including on whether and how many Israeli jets used the airbase during the war - have been divulged.
There is also evidence that military cargo has been airlifted from Akrotiri to Israel during its war on Gaza. This cargo has often travelled to Cyprus from US military bases in other parts of Europe.
Johnson told MEE: "I am deeply concerned that such an operational decision will now prevent vital scrutiny and oversight by parliament on military bases. It should be for the minister to decide whether or not a question is too sensitive to provide an answer and what details may or may not be shared.
"For such a decision to be taken operationally prevents scrutiny and vital debate, particularly for issues as sensitive as this."
Johnson added: "It has been reported that RAF Akrotiri has been used as a base for Israeli bombers and has played an operational role for British intelligence that has been used by the Israelis since their invasion of Gaza. Parliamentarians must be allowed to scrutinise."
She asked: "What does this government have to hide?"
In March, the family of a British aid worker killed by an Israeli drone strike in Gaza slammed the British government for refusing to release information about the attack gathered by an RAF spy plane.
James Kirby, a 47-year-old former British Army rifleman, was working in Gaza for the World Central Kitchen when he was killed last April in an Israeli targeted attack on a three-car aid convoy. He died alongside several others, including two other British veterans.
The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) told The Times it had footage from an RAF spy plane that was flying over Gaza trying to locate Israeli captives on the day of the strike. The MoD refused to disclose the footage, citing national security and defence exemptions.
That same month in parliament's Westminster Hall, MPs grilled the armed forces minister during a rare debate secured by independent MP Shockat Adam on military cooperation with Israel.
"In one year alone, from December 2023 to November 2024, the UK conducted 645 surveillance and recon missions, which amounts to almost two flights a day," Adam said during the debate.
"We have been told that those flights were for surveillance and hostage rescue, but if that is the case, we must ask why we used RAF Atlas C1 aircraft, which are large enough to transport military vehicles and helicopters."
Pollard responded by saying that the UK "shares an important, long-standing and broad strategic partnership with the state of Israel", and praised the RAF's role in defending Israel against an Iranian missile and drone attack last April.
He insisted that surveillance flights over Gaza are "solely in support of hostage rescue" and that information is passed on "only if we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with international humanitarian law".
Pollard added: "For operational security reasons, and as a matter of long-standing policy, the MoD does not confirm, deny or comment on any foreign national military aircraft movement or operation within UK airspace or on UK overseas bases."
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