Economic growth is more important than protecting human rights, Downing Street has suggested, amid questions over Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Monday.
The meeting between the prime minister and Mohammed bin Salman is expected to be focused on boosting growth, with the prime minister saying that such a mission “requires us to strengthen partnerships abroad”.
He insisted his “international agenda starts at home” as he visits the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday in a bid to build closer economic ties with the two Gulf states.
Asked if promoting economic growth is more important for the government than protecting human rights, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “Promoting economic growth is the prime minister’s number one priority, he has been very clear about that.”
But they added that “no aspect of the relationships that we’re building internationally and abroad stop us from raising issues around human rights and protecting our values globally”.
In 2022, Sir Keir accused predecessor Boris Johnson of “going cap in hand from dictator to dictator” when the former prime minister met the Saudi crown prince.
The prime minister is facing calls to raise the wider human rights record of Saudi Arabia, as some 300 people have been executed in the country since 2024, the highest ever toll in a single year.
Legal campaign group Reprieve said the PM could help to save the lives of those awaiting the death penalty, including two child defendants, while the widow of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi urged the prime minister to question the crown prince about the case.
Reprieve deputy executive director Dan Dolan said: “When Boris Johnson visited Mohammed bin Salman in 2022, three days after the mass execution of 81 people, Sir Keir Starmer was rightly scathing of Johnson’s unconditional embrace of one of the world’s most prolific executioners of protesters.
“Now he is the prime minister, he has the opportunity to address the escalating execution crisis in Saudi Arabia.
“If he publicly raises the cases of child defendants Abdullah al-Howaiti and Abdullah al-Derazi when he meets with the crown prince, he could save their lives.”
Downing Street has insisted that “human rights are always discussed regularly, and we stand ready to discuss them with any country”.
The prime minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday morning as part of a two-day trip to the Middle East.
He said the north of England will directly benefit from closer trade ties with the region, as a Manchester-based company specialising in the potentially revolutionary material graphene has announced a deal with the Saudis to use its product in a major project.
Some £250m of investment into a research and innovation hub in Greater Manchester and more than 1,000 skilled jobs could be created as a result of the deal.
Khashoggi’s widow Hanan Elatr Khashoggi told The Guardian that Sir Keir should demand answers about what happened to her husband, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
“I hope my husband’s case has not been forgotten, and I will always maintain to make sure it is not forgotten,” she said. “There is unfinished business here. There has to be justice for Jamal Khashoggi.”
Sir Keir’s visit to Riyadh follows a trip to the United Arab Emirates where he met president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
The two discussed the evolving situation in Syria and the prime minister “welcomed His Highness’s reflections on how to achieve stability in the wider region against the broader geopolitical backdrop”, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“Turning to the bilateral relationship, they agreed on the untapped potential in areas such as artificial intelligence, and a joint desire to build on existing cooperation in defence and security.
“They also discussed a shared ambition for greater investment and trade, building on the close personal ties between the British and Emirati people.”
