BOURNEMOUTH East MP Tobias Ellwood has been criticised after he was forced to correct six government statements on whether Saudi Arabia was breaking international law with British-made weapons.

A list of 30 ministerial statements issued on Parliament’s last day before the summer break included one by Mr Ellwood, a junior Foreign Office minister, admitting that earlier reassurances on the subject had been wrong.

The original replies had been by Philip Hammond, then foreign secretary and now Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has called the “sneaking out” of the correction a “disgrace”.

Politicians and activists had been asking the government about the use by Saudi Arabia of British-manufactured weapons in Yemen.

Mr Ellwood said in his statement: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has recently reviewed all correspondence and parliamentary proceedings on the subject of allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition.

“During this exercise it became clear that the drafting of answers to four written questions and two responses given in debates relating to allegations of breaches of IHL did not fully reflect Her Majesty’s Government’s (HMG) policy as set out in numerous other written questions and debates on this topic.”

Ministers had said the government had assessed that Saudi Arabia was not breaching international humanitarian law or targeting civilians. In fact, they should have said government had not assessed the issue.

Mr Ellwood added: “It is important to make clear that neither the Ministry of Defence nor the Foreign and Commonwealth Office reaches a conclusion as to whether or not an IHL violation has taken place in relation to each and every incident of potential concern that comes to its attention. This would simply not be possible in conflicts to which the UK is not a party, as is the case in Yemen.

“We regularly encourage Saudi Arabia to investigate any allegations of breaches of IHL which are attributed to them; and for their investigations to be thorough and conclusive.”

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake said: “Ellwood has been tying himself in knots trying to defend the government’s hypocritical position on Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which is made clear by the fact they waited until now, in some cases six months after the statements, to make these corrections.

“Having spent all year claiming to have made assessments on whether Saudi Arabia is breaking international humanitarian law in Yemen, we now see that no such assessment has been made, and that MPs have been misled on this issue.

“This sordid affair tarnishes Britain’s standing in the world. It’s time for full transparency on this issue.”