Kim McGuinness travelled with the Prime Minister on a trip to the Gulf last month, during which the North East was promised “immediate benefits” following talks on green energy projects and other investments.
The region’s growing links to the Middle East nation have come under scrutiny since the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle United in 2021, with activists having repeatedly raised serious concerns about the state’s human rights record.
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Saudi Arabia reportedly executed 330 people in 2024, its highest total in decades, according to the Reuters news agency and human rights organisation Reprieve, and campaigners have pressured local politicians to speak out over accusations of Newcastle being used in the ‘sportswashing’ of the regime’s reputation.
But Ms McGuinness told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that “we will never solve those international problems or make progress by simply not engaging” and that ties to Saudi Arabia are already a “day-to-day reality” for the North East, with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) being the football club’s majority owner and Saudi firm Alfanar committing to build a £1.5 billion aviation fuel facility on Teesside.
Asked what thought she gave to human rights concerns before accepting Downing Street’s invitation, she said: “I absolutely considered it, I thought it through an awful lot. But I am really clear that my job is to give our region what it needs to succeed. I was absolutely assured that those issues would be brought up directly by the Prime Minister and I know that did happen.
“Our job is to make sure that we are doing the best for this place. The reality is that investment is already here, the relationships already exist. There is an argument that we should be doing more together and making more of the opportunities that we share.”
She added: “Who we choose to work with doesn’t change our values. But we also have the reality that if we start to eliminate potential international partners on that basis we will be left with a very small world to work in.”
Amnesty International UK had called on Sir Keir to use talks with Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman, during which the Arsenal-supporting PM invited the crown prince to the UK and suggested they watch a football match together, to “challenge the authorities’ draconian repression of human rights defenders, rampant use of the death penalty and institutionalised discrimination against women”.
Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour recently agreed to meet with human rights activists from Saudi Arabia, while the NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing campaign group has accused Tyneside’s leaders of “falling over themselves to cosy up” to Saudi Arabia since the football club’s takeover “while Newcastle’s reputation gets dragged through the mud”.
The group said it had “not been clear” what benefits the relationship with Saudi Arabia had yet delivered for the North East.
At the time of the trade visit, Downing Street announced plans to establish a new Joint International Institute for Clean Hydrogen backed by a consortium of Saudi and British universities that will include a “leading role” for Newcastle University and “cement the North East’s reputation as an academic engineering powerhouse”.
But one prominent council figure in the region has claimed that too little has been done to extract more investment from Saudi Arabia and that “far more should be happening to capitalise on the relationship between Newcastle and the Gulf”.
Richard Wearmouth, the deputy leader of Tory-run Northumberland County Council, said: “Where on earth is the ambition? Where are the efforts to unlock the huge urban regeneration scheme that would come with a new stadium for Newcastle United, the hotel and leisure investment that would pour in as a result of getting behind the existing PIF investment, the conference ecosystem that would emerge from such infrastructure?
“Why are they not talking to the Saudis about a full scale River Tyne corridor renewal, city centre housing and outlining a vision of shared opportunity?”
Ms McGuinness said her talks in Saudi Arabia were “incredibly productive” and centred on green energy, regeneration, housing retrofit programmes, and tourism.
She added: “I think there is a reality about this. People will naturally ask around human rights and legislative change and I know for a fact that the Prime Minister had those conversations while we were there – as he should, because we will never make progress by not engaging.
“But for us the day-to-day reality is that there is already Saudi investment in our region, there is an opportunity to grow that to deliver some of the things that people really want to see, and to work to build that relationship.”