LABOUR delegates have unanimously backed demands that the party in government would completely halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Delegates at the party’s annual conference in Brighton welcomed the UN's call for a ceasefire to the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen.

It said that the next Labour government must show “commitment” to stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in the day, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said: “Why on earth would they roll out the red carpet for [Saudi leader] Bin Salman?

“Well now we know why. It’s the only way to cover up the blood which is dripping from his hands from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in Yemen.

“I am sick and tired of sorrow. I am sick and tired of crying over what happens one month only to see even worse happen the next.

“Those children need more than our sympathy and tears. They need our action. They need our protection.

“And we cannot call ourselves the keepers of those children unless we are out there demanding it.”

The debate came as Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) demanded the British government stop all licences for arms exports to the country and refuse all future licences.

Leigh Day Solicitors wrote to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s legal department to say that the government should recognise UN findings and stop all sales until the regime improves its human rights record.

Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough delegate Abdullah Okud said that “enough is enough” in Yemen.

He said: “Conference, the people of Yemen are just like us. They cry like us. They dream our dreams and we dream their dreams.

“We have more in common with the innocent Yemeni people than the political leaders who sell weapons which are used to violate international law.”

Calling for a ban on all weapons sales to countries that violate human rights, as well as on all nuclear weapons, Mr Okud paraphrased Malcolm X by saying: “We declare our right on this earth to be human beings.”

• In further worrying signs of escalating tensions, PM Boris Johnson failed to rule out military intervention in Iran after he blamed the country for attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.