UK firms make huge profits on arm sales to Saudi Arabia

British companies selling weapons have earned hundreds of millions of dollars by selling arms to Saudi Arabia during the ongoing war in Yemen, a report says. New estimates released by the children’s charity War Child reveal that since the Saudi-led coalition began its intervention in Yemen, UK weapons companies including BAE systems and Raytheon have earned revenues exceeding $8bn from dealings with Saudi Arabia, generating profits estimated at almost $775m.

The UK government, however, has received just $40m of corporate tax, the report said.

“This tax revenue figure is pitifully small and comes at the cost of thousands of children who have been killed, injured, and starved by a conflict that this trade has helped sustain,” the report said.

A Saudi-led military coalition was formed in March 2015 to support Yemen’s internationally recognised government in fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels

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