UK: Starmer urged to raise human rights on Saudi investment trip

Prominent left-wing members of the Labour Party have called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to challenge Saudi Arabia on its human rights record, as he prepares to visit the kingdom next month in a push for fresh investment.

Starmer is reportedly set to seek investment from sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), linked to a series of human rights abuses - including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Labour MP Clive Lewis told the Guardian: "There should be a couple of items on the agenda. One will be their human rights record domestically. The second will be the issue of Yemen. Third will be oil production, and where they’re investing their sovereign wealth fund around the world."

John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, who now sits as an independent MP after being suspended from Labour for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, said: "Of course we want economic relations with a whole range of countries, but at the same time we have to be prime advocates across the world in standing up for human rights.

"Trips to pander to governments that have such a level of abuse of human rights, and particularly with regard to what’s happening in Yemen, we have to be extremely wary."

Starmer's position on Saudi Arabia has evolved considerably over the past decade. As an opposition MP in 2016, he voted in parliament to withdraw Britain's military support to Saudi Arabia for its war on Yemen.

Then in 2020, while running to be leader of the Labour Party, Starmer called for a halt to arms sales to Saudi Arabia. "I want us to go further and review all arms sales, as well as halting the sales to Saudi Arabia that are creating the horrifying humanitarian suffering in Yemen," he said.

'Cap in hand from dictator to dictator'

For a while, as leader of the opposition, this approach continued.

Starmer accused then-Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson of going "cap in hand from dictator to dictator" for oil when he visited Saudi Arabia in 2022.

But the Labour leader was accused of retreating from this position earlier this year, when he said of arms sales to the oil-rich state: "We will do a review to look at the sales, look at the countries and the relationships we have."

'The offer the UK can make to President Trump should include the UK and Saudi playing a leading role in the difficult work of peace negotiations'

- Dan Carden, Labour MP

In January, the Starmer backed the Conservative government when it launched bombing raids on the Houthis, who were attacking Red Sea shipping roots. 

Now as prime minister, he is understood to be trying to bolster Britain's diplomatic relations with Gulf states and seek fresh investment from their sovereign wealth funds.

Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched a report that alleged that the PIF, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, "facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses".

It also says the PIF has "facilitated serious human rights violations" linked to Mohammed bin Salman "through companies it owns and controls, such as the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi".

Khashoggi, a Middle East Eye and Washington Post columnist, was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a hit squad sent from Riyadh. The CIA concluded that the operation was signed off by the crown prince, an accusation he denies.

According to HRW, Sky Prime Aviation, a company controlled by the PIF, "owned the two planes used in 2018 by Saudi agents to travel to Istanbul, where they murdered Khashoggi".

When MEE asked the foreign office about the connections last week, it declined to comment.

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The PIF already has significant investments in Britain, with a 40 percent stake in London's upmarket department store Selfridges and majority ownership of Newcastle United football club.

James Jennion, co-executive director of the Labour Campaign for Human Rights, told the Guardian that it is "vital to ensure that rights are not sidelined in the UK’s international engagement".

Labour MP Dan Carden, who is on the foreign affairs select committee, highlighted the diplomatic significance of the trip.

"The next two months are critical to influencing president-elect Trump’s peace plan," he said. 

"The UK has to work urgently and closely with key regional allies including Saudi.

"The offer the UK can make to President Trump should include the UK and Saudi playing a leading role in the difficult work of peace negotiations."