BRITISH arms sales to Saudi Arabia are helping to enable “disgusting war crimes” in Yemen and must end, food workers demanded today.

The bakers’ union’s Dimitru Manole said the West “screams with indignation at Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine but, when it comes to those of our allies, there is nothing but silence.”

He was addressing the final day of the union’s annual conference in Staffordshire, which saw delegates give overwhelming support to a motion which warned that Yemen is witnessing the “biggest human catastrophe on Earth.”

Up to 9,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed by Saudi air strikes on its neighbour since the Middle Eastern state began to target Houthi rebels there in 2015, part of a proxy war with regional rival Iran.

About 130,000 people are thought to have died so far in the conflict, which according to the United Nations had led to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster with 20 million suffering from hunger and malnutrition.

Mr Manole, who is a member of the union’s executive council, said: “A crime is being committed in Yemen – hospitals, schools, markets, water treatment plants, bombed.

“All these things are being enabled by the British and American governments and arms manufacturers.

“We cry about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but when it comes to Saudi Arabia there is nothing but silence.”

Delegate Dougie Johnston added: “Saudi has no regards to human rights – they’ve nearly flattened Yemen – yet we seem to bend our knees to the guys in Riyadh.

“Let’s call them out for what they are – an evil, theocratic dictatorship that cares about no-one.”