PM travelling to Bahrain for Gulf Cooperation Council summit in pursuit of first post-Brexit trade deal with bloc

Theresa May has said the UK must not “turn our back” on the human rights abuses of foreign countries as she prepares to court Gulf states over a post-Brexit trade deal on a trip to Bahrain.

The prime minister has been urged by campaigners not to set aside human rights concerns in pursuit of a potentially lucrative free-trade arrangement with Middle-Eastern countries.

But May, who will become the first British leader and the first woman to attend the annual gathering of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) annual summit, said on Sunday that the UK must seek to “transform the way we do business” with the region.

“As the UK leaves the EU, we should seize the opportunity to forge a new trade arrangement between the UK and the Gulf,” she said. “This could transform the way we do business and lock in a new level of prosperity for our people.”

She added: “There will be some people in the UK who say we shouldn’t seek stronger trade and security ties with these countries because of their record on human rights. But we don’t uphold our values and human rights by turning our back on this issue. We achieve far more by stepping up, engaging with these countries and working with them.”

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and many Conservative MPs believe a trade deal with the Gulf could be one of the first the UK can seal post-Brexit. But the GCC member states – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – may demand visa-free travel in return.

The largest political party in Bahrain has been banned from the summit in Manama and both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been heavily criticised for their bombing campaign in the Yemen civil war.

In a letter sent to May and published on Sunday, groups including Human Rights Watch, Reprieve and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “The Bahraini authorities’ orchestrated attack on the rights to free expression, assembly and association has seriously undermined the prospects of a political solution to Bahrain’s domestic unrest.

“If your government is serious about its commitment to encouraging reform and dialogue, you should use this influence to press the government of Bahrain to put an immediate stop to this repression.”

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Critics such as Amnesty International claim that UK engagement in Bahrain, such as helping to train its judiciary and giving advice about a police complaints ombudsman, has not led to real change, but instead has become a PR fig leaf.

Despite having a free trade agreement with the European free trade area, the Gulf states have failed to strike a trade deal with the EU and talks with Brussels have in effect been on ice since 2008.

In 2015, British exports to the GCC were £22bn, higher than UK exports to China and more than double those to India.

May’s visit will coincide with an initiative by MPs to give UK authorities the power to seize assets of dictators and human rights abusers who buy luxury property in Britain to conceal their wealth.

A group of backbenchers are seeking to amend the criminal finances bill and to introduce a clause targeting those guilty of abusing human rights outside Britain. It would allow officials and groups such as Amnesty International to apply for an order freezing perpetrators’ UK assets.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa at the Diriyah Palace during the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 2016. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

The two-day GCC summit is likely to discuss whether it should form a tighter economic Gulf union, including a single market, single currency and customs union modelled on the EU.

Both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have been pressing the idea of a Gulf Union since 2012, arguing that world insecurity, including the threat posed by Iran, makes the case for forming a large, more unified bloc. Huge democratic and social obstacles lie in front of the project, including concerns about loss of national sovereignty.

UK security and economic ties with Bahrain have been especially close and King Hamad of Bahrain extended the invitation to May, when he visited Downing Street in October. Prince Charles also visited Bahrain last month, along with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, where he opened a wing of the new Royal Navy base, the construction of which has been funded by the King of Bahrain. During her visit the Duchess of Cornwall raised the issue of women’s rights and domestic violence, setting a bar for the prime minister.

But in a letter sent to May and published on Sunday the rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Reprieve and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), claim: “The Bahraini authorities’ orchestrated attack on the rights to free expression, assembly and association, has seriously undermined the prospects of a political solution to Bahrain’s domestic unrest.

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“If your government is serious about its commitment to encouraging reform and dialogue, you should use this influence to press the government of Bahrain to put an immediate stop to this repression.”

In particular, the groups urge the prime minister to call for the release of arrested human rights defender Nabeel Rajab who has been held in solitary confinement in police custody since June 2016. Rajab is facing up to 15 years in prison on charges of insulting a neighbouring state, spreading rumours in wartime and insulting a statutory body. These charges relate to his criticism of the humanitarian cost of the war in Yemen, in which Bahrain is a participant, and for his documentation of torture in Bahrain’s Central Jau Prison. He faces another charge of defaming the state after he wrote a letter to the New York Times in September 2016.

Sheikh Ali Salman, the Shia leader of the largest opposition party, has been jailed for nine years.

The human rights abuses in Bahrain are a specific British concern, as the UK government has provided technical assistance since 2012 to help implement police and judicial reform.

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The UK helped to set up two bodies – the Ombudsman of the Ministry of Interior and the Special Investigations Unit within the Public Prosecution Office, both of which receive training and capacity building support from the UK. Both were established in 2012 in the wake of the Bahraini government’s brutal crackdown on protests the previous year.

The foreign secretary Boris Johnson speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show again insisted he was concerned about the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, saying he had spoken to the Saudi foreign minister about the issue only this weekend.

But Johnson said he believed the Saudi campaign did not represent a serious risk of war crimes violations and added that the UK was not involved in helping Saudi Arabia to set specific bomb targets.