Sir Keir Starmer will travel to the Persian Gulf today as he tries to build stronger trade ties with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
In his first visit to the region as prime minister, he will aim to boost investment in the UK and deepen defence and security partnerships, said Number 10.
The two Middle Eastern countries are among Britain’s “most vital modern-day partners”, it said in a statement.
After flying to the Gulf on Sunday night, Sir Keir will meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on Monday.
Later that day, he will fly to Saudi Arabia where he will have talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Sir Keir is facing calls from human rights groups to raise with Saudi leaders the rising number of executions.
The PM said: “Driving long-term growth at home requires us to strengthen partnerships abroad.”
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He added that his trip will “build a network of partners” focused on “driving high-quality growth”.
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Saudi ambassador to UK talks to Sky
Trade worth billions
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are both major investors in the UK. Trade with the Emirates is worth £23bn, while trade with Saudi Arabia is worth £17bn.
More than 7,000 UK businesses export goods to Saudi Arabia, with such goods and services supporting almost 90,000 jobs across the country, while 14,000 UK businesses sent goods to UAE last year.
Saudi Arabia is also the UK’s largest defence exports market, worth £3.8bn a year to British industry.
Stability in the Middle East is set to be “high up the agenda” during the visit, including the need for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the urgent acceleration of aid into Gaza, the No 10 statement added.
‘Execution crisis’
Human rights legal group Reprieve has called on Sir Keir to raise what it described as an “execution crisis” with Saudi leaders.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed 300 people in 2024, its highest-ever total in one year.
Reprieve’s 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.”
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Qatari PM to ‘stabilise’ Gaza before Trump in office
The trip comes after the state visit earlier this week by the Qatari emir who agreed a new long-term green energy partnership, deepened defence and security ties and discussed the importance of regional stability.
Following his Gulf trip, Sir Keir is expected to travel to Cyprus on Monday night.
He will have talks with President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday before meeting British troops deployed over Christmas.
It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.
Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.
“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”
He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.
However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”
Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.
“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.
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Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.
At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.
However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.
After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.
A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem
Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Image: Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
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