EAST Renfrewshire’s Member of Parliament has criticised the UK government for its handling of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Yemen.

Kirsten Oswald is calling on EU foreign ministers to put peace negotiations ahead of arms deals after foreign secretary Boris Johnson backed continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite air strikes on a funeral killing 140 people.

The SNP spokeswoman on armed forces said the government needs to reassess the way it is dealing with the situation, as ministers have not raised the crisis at any key meeting in two years.

Ms Oswald said: “It is increasingly clear that the UK government are presiding over a long catalogue of strategic and ethical failures in Yemen – which include the failure even to raise the issue in EU forums – while still selling arms, equipment and expertise to the Saudis.

“The UK government need to take a long, hard look at their role in this humanitarian tragedy but they are so bogged down in their hard Brexit plans that it just carries on and gets worse and worse.

“For two years, as the crisis deepened, the government has allowed Yemen to fall by the wayside within the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

“This is all the worse as British-made cluster bombs were used on Yemen while ministers denied their use. Then the Saudi government revealed that cluster munitions had been used by their air force, which has UK advisors embedded within it.

“Yemen is a humanitarian catastrophe and it is time the UK government put peace deals ahead of arms deals.”

Mr Johnson has previously spoken of his “profound concern” for people in Yemen and said that “force alone” would not bring stability to the country.

However, he added that the Saudis need to be “secure from bombardment” from Yemen.

Mr Johnson has also stressed that Brexit would allow the UK to do free trade deals in the Gulf.