TOP brass and senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) received hospitality dozens of times from arms dealer BAE Systems in the last three months of 2018, new figures show.

Whitehall figures were treated to dinners, drinks and receptions with BAE on 38 occasions.

The revelation comes as Britain’s largest arms company published its half-year results today, which showed that earnings per share have risen by 10.6 per cent.