ANTI-ARMS-TRADE campaigners are demanding answers from the government over the legality of a Saudi weapons ship that was due to dock at Tilbury today.

The Bahri Yanbu, which has ferried hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of arms to the Gulf state, is stopping off this week at five European countries.

The ship has been given a licence to dock by the British government. But lawyers from Leigh Day, who represent CAAT, are questioning whether this could be in breach of a court order made last year that banned the government from issuing new licences for arms bound to Saudi Arabia, which is deeply involved in a bloody civil war in neighbouring Yemen.