Protesters made their voices heard outside a Vince Cable’s speaking dinner with former cabinet minister Shirley Williams in St Margarets last week.

More than 25 members of the Twickenham, Richmond and Kingston Against the Arms Trade (Traknat) were protesting the Twickenham MP’s “promotion of arms to human rights abusing regimes”.

Traknat members told Baroness Williams and guests, including Greg Dyke and Lord Oakshott, that British-made small arms and armoured vehicles were used to suppress democracy protesters in Bahrain.

Harald Molgard, from Twickenham, said: “Vince Cable’s business department works hard to sell arms to countries where some of the world’s poorest live including India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.

“He fails to see the moral case for not promoting weapons to countries with large populations of very poor people.

“He doesn’t seem to realise that weapons expenditure diverts resources from development.”