How Labour can reassess the UK-Saudi Arabia relationship

Top lines

The UK Prime Minister’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has reopened the debate regarding the closeness of the UK-Saudi Relationship. Not least, because it came in the same week that Saudi Arabia executed 81 men for a range of criminal offences.

Vladamir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought the Gulf states into centre stage as UK diplomats and their allies implore Saudi, UAE, and other gulf oil and gas producers to increase production to reduce Western dependence on Russian fossil fuels and to stop rising domestic gas prices.

The forced sale of Chelsea football club, previously owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, brings into light the role of Saudi state funded companies in UK football, not least the recent purchase of Newcastle United by a Saudi-led consortium.

Labour should use the UK’s planned ‘tilt’ towards the Asia-Pacific region, the withdrawal of UK troops on the ground in the Middle East, and the growing consensus on the need to phase out oil in favour of renewable energy and a ‘Green New Deal’, as an opportunity for a serious discussion on reassessing the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Such a discussion should include looking at intelligence, arms, human rights and energy dependence - as detailed in this briefing.

Photo: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meets Prince Abdulazziz bin Salman, Saudi Minister for Energy for a bilateral meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 21 October 2021. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street via Flickr.