Boris Johnson going ‘from dictator to dictator’ for oil, says Starmer
Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “going cap in hand from dictator to dictator,” as the prime minister prepares to fly to Saudi Arabia to seek alternatives to Russian oil supplies.
Johnson has a personal relationship with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and government sources suggest he could help persuade the Saudis to increase oil production. The prime minister defended the trip on Tuesday, saying he had to build a coalition of countries to help the west reduce its dependence on Vladimir Putin, likening the Russian leader to a drug dealer who had got the west hooked on his hydrocarbons.
Johnson said: “It’s vital, if we are going to stand up to Putin’s bullying, if we are going to avoid being blackmailed by Putin in the way that so many western countries sadly have been, we have got to get ourselves off Russian hydrocarbons.”
The investment minister, Gerald Grimstone, will join the trip in an attempt to secure more investment in green technology in the UK.
But concern in Britain and elsewhere about the Saudis’ record on human rights has intensified after Riyadh executed 81 men last weekend. Prince Mohammed is believed by US intelligence to have ordered the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Starmer stopped short of calling for Johnson to cancel his trip, which will also take in the UAE, but warned against replacing a long-term dependence on Russian oil, with a reliance on the Saudis.
“Obviously there’s a real energy crisis in terms of the cost at the moment, so anything that brings the cost down now is a step in the right direction, whatever it is,” the Labour leader said. “But going cap in hand from dictator to dictator is not an energy strategy”.
He accused the government of a short term,
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