Bahrain’s crown prince hailed Sir Keir Starmer’s garden speech “a very ambitious roadmap for the future”, when the pair met to discuss investment and defence in Downing Street.
Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa met the Prime Minister at Number 10, hours after Sir Keir claimed to have inherited “not just an economic black hole (but) a societal black hole” from the Conservatives.
“Having come into this office myself a while, a few years, ago, I do remember looking at what was inherited and then seeing what I could do to improve it,” the crown prince said, after having taken office as Bahrain’s prime minister in 2020.
He added: “Thank you for taking the time to receive myself and my delegation.
“I’d like to congratulate you on your speech today, laying out a very ambitious roadmap for the future.”
Sir Keir said: “Obviously, there’s a long and very important history between our countries that we’re very proud of and very keen to build on, whether that’s investment, defence, people-to-people.
“So, it’s very good to have this early opportunity.”
He added: “I think being clear about the inheritance is really important, and then clearing it away.
“The example I gave this morning was, the example of, sort of, clearing the garden but not really doing the weeding properly and you know where it’s going to end up.
“But I think there’s huge potential for us and our countries working together, I mean, particularly investment, particularly the defence work, already difficult.
“And thank you so much for the role that you play particularly in the Red Sea.”
The crown prince replied: “Not at all.”
UK Maritime Trade Operations has logged several incidents in the Red Sea this summer, including suspicious approaches and attacks on vessels involving explosions or projectiles in the inlet, which connects Indian Ocean and Mediterranean shipping routes via the Suez Canal.
Houthi rebels are understood to have targeted shipping through the corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Sir Keir has spoken with several leaders from the Middle East in recent weeks, including the Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said of Oman who he hosted in Downing Street earlier this month.
The pair spoke about conflict in neighbouring Yemen and the country’s 19-year economic and social action plan between 2021 and 2040.
The Prime Minister has also spoken with the leaders of Egypt, Iran, Israel and Palestine, amid heightened tensions in the region.
Returning to Bahraini and UK relations, Prince Salman said: “We signed the trucial states agreement in 1816, Prime Minister. That is one year after Waterloo.”
Sir Keir previously said in the Downing Street garden that “things are worse than we ever imagined” in Whitehall, and claimed his ministers had discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, made up of unfunded spending commitments.
“Before anyone says, ‘Oh this is just performative or playing politics’, let’s remember the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) did not know about it, they wrote a letter setting that out,” the Prime Minister said.
OBR chair Richard Hughes wrote to the Treasury in July to notify it of a “review into the preparation” of the Government departments’ spending forecast earlier this year.
Sir Keir also claimed rioters and violent protesters “saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of failure and they exploited them”.
He added: “That’s what we’ve inherited. Not just an economic black hole, a societal black hole, and that’s why we have to take action and do things differently.”
Shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of “taking the British public for fools”.
The Tory leadership hopeful added: “Of course we made some mistakes in government.
“But remarkably, Labour are doubling down on those mistakes – from immigration to Net Zero policy. Worse still, they are prioritising the demands of their trade union paymasters over investment in public services.
“The truth is that Keir Starmer is managing voters’ expectations for a decade of decline.”
