Sir Keir says deal with Gulf States a ‘huge win’ for British business but …
May 2026
The government proudly announced a trade deal with the Gulf States this week which will increase trade with UK firms by many millions. The fly in the ointment however is the human and worker’s rights in those countries which are dire. Take UAE as an example. The country commits a wide range of abuses against its citizens. There is little freedom of expression with a number of individuals given long sentences following mass trials which are transparently unfair.
Women have few rights and experience inequality in education, employment and legal rights. The kefala system is widely employed which ties foreign workers to one employer and effectively denies them any meaningful employment rights.
Torture and other abusive actions are frequent with prisoners kept for long periods in solitary confinement. Human rights defenders are harassed.
The country is accused of providing military equipment to the RSF in Sudan who have committed a range of atrocities. A similar range of failures could be listed among the other countries included in the agreement, Saudi Arabia for example.
Values free
None of this seems to matter. Any mention of human rights has been omitted from the agreement and the government claims these matters are best pursued outside it. The TUC has criticised it arguing that we should ‘not be doing deals with countries which abuse human rights and worker’s rights‘. It is claimed to be a ‘values free agreement’.
Any notion of limiting trade with oppressive regimes which practise a range of abuses against its citizens seems a distant prospect. We are sufficiently desperate for trade that such matters are no longer part of the political landscape. Yet ministers will often claim their belief in human rights. Sir Keir himself told his biographer “There is no version of my life that does not largely revolve around me being a human rights lawyer”. Being a lawyer is not the same as having principles and acting on them. Wouldn’t it be more honest simply to admit we will trade with anyone? There is a podcast of this and other recent posts – see below:
Sources: Amnesty, HRW, American Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrein
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 