RISHI Sunak’s family is profiting from strong links to the arms industry including a firm that provides parts for Israeli military helicopters, The National can reveal.
The multinational IT firm Infosys – which is part-owned by the Prime Minister’s wife Akshata Murty with shares worth around £700 million and dividend payouts of over £50m since 2020 – counts several of the UK’s largest weapons firms as long-standing clients and partners.
It comes after Sunak announced last week that weapons firms are to be considered “ethical” under newly altered criteria to encourage private sector investment.
He also promised an extra £75 billion in defence spending by 2030 amid increased pressure on the UK Government to halt arms sales to Israel amid its brutal war on Gaza.
READ MORE: Scotland’s weapons firms held over 1000 secret meetings with UK Government
Infosys – which was founded by Murty’s father – has a consulting arm for the aerospace and defence industry and counts one of the UK’s largest arms manufacturers in Rolls Royce as one of its major clients.
Rolls Royce is the world’s 25th largest arms company according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, producing military aircraft engines, naval engines, power supplies for military vehicles, and cores for nuclear submarines.
Rolls Royce and Infosys entered into a strategic partnership together in 2020, opening up a joint aerospace engineering centre in India in an effort to yield “mutual benefits to both organisations”.
It comes as Rolls Royce recently announced its submarines division would open a new office in Cardiff and Glasgow funded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The firm’s CEO Tufan Erginbilgic also sits on Rishi Sunak’s exclusive business council for 2024, which advises the Prime Minister on ways to “grow the UK economy”.
Rolls Royce didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Infosys has also worked with Spirit Aerosystems for over 18 years, an aerostructures manufacturer that builds the composite fuselage for CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters – 12 of which were sold to the Israeli military in 2021.
More recently, Infosys and Spirit Aerosystems opened a joint aerospace engineering centre in Texas to enable the two companies to “work more closely” together and build upon a partnership in which Infosys has reportedly “provided innovative design solutions” for some of the firms aerostructure programs.
Spirit Aerosystems also has an office in Scotland’s Prestwick Airport.
When asked for comment, a company spokesperson said: "Our supplier, Infosys, supports us on some of our commercial and aftermarket programmes.
"We build the fuselage for the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter at our Wichita, US facility."
Infosys also counts Bell Helicopter, a leading manufacturer of military and commercial helicopters, as another one of its clients.
The SNP’s defence spokesperson in Westminster, Martin Docherty-Hughes (below), told The National that “no one should be surprised”.
The MP added: “While it may not break any laws, the invidious nature of the Prime Minister's familial investments highlights a clear lack of transparency at the heart of the Westminster system.
“With a defence ministry that now seeks to spend an extra £75 billion on defence, the Westminster’s political masters will no doubt dumb down on openness and transparency no matter who sits in 10 Downing Street.
“Scotland needs a defence structure based on Scotland and our allies needs, not those of a political elite wedded to personal and familial gain at any cost.”
Emily Apple from Campaign Against Arms Trade, meanwhile, said that Sunak’s connection to the arms trade demonstrates a larger issue.
“Too many of our political elite are in the pocket of the arms trade, profiting from this vile trade in death and destruction and promoting the interests of these death merchants in their parliamentary work," she added.
“Rishi Sunak is profiting from genocide. Despite immense pressure for the UK to uphold international law and suspend arms sales to Israel, Sunak has refused to act.
“Instead he is actively praising the UK arms trade, and promoting his own self-interest. He is complicit in the horrific war crimes Israel is committing and should face the consequences of his actions.”
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman said that the war industry has “found a firm friend in Rishi Sunak”.
She added: “He has continued to arm and support human rights abusing regimes around the world, including Israeli forces who are inflicting genocide and some of the worst war crimes of this century on the people of Gaza.
“The last seven months have been a humanitarian disaster for Palestinians, but the arms companies have treated it as a business opportunity and a chance to shift even more of their deadly wares. And it's no accident - their entire business model is based on conflict.
“The close knit, immoral relationship between Westminster and the arms industry is a problem, and one that has had grave consequences. It is sickening to think that the Prime Minister’s family could be profiting from the death and destruction these companies are fuelling.”
Infosys didn't respond to a request for comment and the Prime Minister’s office didn’t offer one.
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