ENDING arms sales to Saudi Arabia will not save lives in Yemen, a Foreign Office minister claims.

In a sometimes charged appearance before the cross-party International Development Committee, Alistair Burt insisted the UK is not party to the bloody conflict, defended the Saudi response to civilian deaths and questioned the media focus on the actions of the Gulf kingdom.

And while a trio of experts from the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and the Oxford Research Group called on the UK to end arms sales to its big-money client, Burt dismissed suggestions that this could help end the suffering, saying: “Ending arms sales wouldn’t do that.”

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the committee the UK must change its policy on the matter.

Despite earning the UK billions in arms sales, the conflict has helped create the world’s worst ever cholera epidemic, lead to widespread malnutrition and starvation and cost thousands of lives to bombing and airstrikes.

Egeland said: “The time of being concerned and doing a little bit more humanitarian work and talking with the Saudis is over.

“[It needs] the US, UK and France saying ‘we are your main arms salesmen, we are your main intelligence and strategic partners. We demand a ceasefire, stop the air raids, stop the campaign, stop the offensive.”

Burt said Saudi Arabia is at risk from Iranian interference in the conflict, in which the Saudi-led coalition is backing the recognised government in a battle against Houthi rebels.

Agencies say atrocities are being carried out on both sides but coalition airstrikes are said to be responsible for destroying hospitals, housing and schools, as well as causing mass deaths at weddings and recently hitting a bus full of school children.

Burt said that incident was an error that the Saudis had investigated.

Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle said: “We have British soldiers embedded in the control centres.

“We train Saudi pilots in Wales.

“The only thing that we don’t do is actually press the button to drop the bomb. Can we not just be honest? We are part of this war.”

Defending his government’s actions, Burt said: “We have a duty to do everything we can to bring the conflict to an end.”

The committee heard how medics and teachers in Yemen had not been paid for up to two years as a result of structural and economic collapse.

Around one million children are displaced within the country and, despite the lack of provision of medical care, citizens are unable to fly out to seek cancer and other treatment elsewhere.

Dina El-Mamoun of Oxfam said coalition bombs had destroyed sanitation work completed by her team. Describing the situation in the country, she said: “Every time we go back it’s much worse.”