A PROBE has been launched after a group of MPs accepted donations from an Israeli state-owned weapons firm.
The National previously told how the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Defence Technology – a cross-party group of MPs – took at least £1499 from RUK Advanced Systems Ltd, a weapons firm which is owned by the Israeli government.
RUK Advanced Systems Ltd makes missiles for urban warfare, and is part of Israel's state-owned defence giant, Rafael.
It is against parliamentary rules for APPGs to "accept the services of a secretariat funded directly or indirectly by a foreign government".
On Monday, Declassified UK reported that the parliamentary standards commissioner has now launched an official investigation into "due diligence of funding".
It is understood that one of the APPG's co-chairs, Conservative MP Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, referred the case himself after being contacted by Declassified UK.
Shastri-Hurst is a practicing barrister and currently sits on Westminster's Standards Committee.
When the donation was first reported by Declassified UK, neither the APPG nor any of the MPs involved in the group responded to a request for comment.
However, the outlet reported that RUK Advanced System Ltd's name was immediately removed from the group's website.
The firm also appeared to delete its website, which remains offline at the time of writing.
While RUK Advanced System Ltd describes itself as a "UK company", it is controlled by the Israeli government's ministry of finance, which is led by far-right politician Bezalel Smotrich, who was sanctioned by the UK Government last month for inciting "extremist violence" against Palestinians.
The firm's corporate structure has since been changed on Companies House, although it remains under the control of the Israeli government.
The defence APPG was created in January and has already been sponsored by at least 37 arms firms, including industry titans Leonardo and Lockheed Martin.
Leonardo, which has a factory in Edinburgh, is known to have produced targeting systems for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets, which have been used to bombard Gaza.
Lockheed Martin – the world’s largest arms company – also contributes parts to F-35 fighter jets.
There are 30 MPs involved in the APPG, five of whom are from Scottish Labour: Gordon McKee (Glasgow South), Graeme Downie (Dunfermline and Dollar), Lillian Jones (Kilmarnock and Loudon), Kenneth Stevenson (Airdrie and Shotts) and Chris Kane (Stirling and Strathallan).
Other MPs on the group include Fred Thomas (co-chair), Sarah Bool (officer), Anna Gelderd (officer), Luke Akehurst and Iain Duncan Smith.
