Boris Johnson will jet to Saudi Arabia today to shore up Britain’s oil and gas supplies despite fury over the country’s human rights record.
The Prime Minister is expected to fly to Riyadh this evening and speak to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the hope the kingdom can increase its production of oil and gas.
Yet it comes just days after 81 men were executed in the nation’s biggest mass execution in decades.
MPs lined up yesterday to urge Mr Johnson to cancel the trip. But today he came out fighting, saying the West must end its “addiction” to Russian energy.
Despite previously seeking to blame the EU over the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Mr Johnson said Western leaders had made a "terrible mistake" by letting Vladimir Putin "get away with" it.
Writing in the Telegraph he added: “We cannot go on like this. The world cannot be subject to this continuous blackmail.
”As long as the West is economically dependent on Putin, he will do all he can to exploit that dependence… And that is why that dependence must - and will - now end."
Last week the PM pledged a long-term plan - which is now delayed to later this month - and announced the UK will phase out use of Russian oil, but not gas, this year.
But in a terse debate yesterday, Tory ex-minister Crispin Blunt warned it was “a new low for human rights and criminal justice in the kingdom, coming only a week after the Crown Prince had promised to modernise the Saudi justice system."
SNP frontbencher Alyn Smith added Mr Johnson's visit "should not go ahead and there should be a consequence".
Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael warned: "Actions do speak louder than words.
"If the Prime Minister goes in the next few days to Saudi Arabia, we will be sending a very clear signal that no matter what we say, we're not really bothered about this sort of thing."
Foreign Office minister Amanda Milling replied: "Given our relationship with Saudi Arabia, we are able to have those frank conversations about human rights. We are opposed to the death penalty in all countries under all circumstances."
But Labour MP Nadia Whittome said: "In light of the executions on Saturday, will the Prime Minister cancel his planned visit and will this Government do what it should have done long ago and end arms sales to the Saudi regime?"
Conservative Julian Lewis called on the Government to confirm that "in seeking to lessen our dependence upon one source of oil and gas, we do not end up creating a source dependency on another unreliable and sometimes hostile regime".
Amnesty International UK's foreign affairs human rights adviser Polly Truscott said: "The shocking news about mass executions in Saudi Arabia makes it more important than ever that the Prime Minister challenges the Saudi authorities over their absolutely appalling human rights record and that he speaks publicly about human rights during this trip.”
Before his evening flight, the Prime Minister is due to host leaders from the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), an alliance of northern European nations.
Representatives from Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway had been expected to dine with Mr Johnson at his Chequers country retreat on Monday night before talks in London on Tuesday.
It came as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) confirmed that, as of 9.30pm on Monday, more than 43,000 households had offered to put up those fleeing the conflict as part of the UK Government's sponsorship scheme.
A DLUHC spokesman said the total is "continuing to rise", with offers doubling within a matter of hours.
Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins, whose country shares its eastern border with Russia, told the BBC : "We have to think of all the things we can do in order to stop Putin because if we do not stop Putin he will simply continue in this way, in his fight against the democratic world."
Stating that Russia produces "virtually nothing else" that the "rest of the world wants to buy", Mr Johnson argued: "If the world can end its dependence on Russian oil and gas, we can starve him of cash, destroy his strategy and cut him down to size."
Offering a glimpse of what could be in his British Energy Security Strategy, which is due to be published this month, he said there is a need to press ahead with investment in renewables, including expanding the number of UK offshore wind farms and creating more solar power.
Mr Johnson also said there needs to be a "series of big new bets" on nuclear power to make sure the UK's energy supply is "no longer at the mercy of bullies like Putin".
However, the Prime Minister sought to level with the public, warning that diverging from Russian power will be "painful" and that financial assistance offered by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help with rising bills this year cannot be afforded "for long".
The latest intelligence update published by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia is "likely to make further attempts to subvert Ukrainian democracy" amid reports that Moscow is to install its own mayor in the city of Melitpol following the alleged abduction of his predecessor.
The MoD also said reports suggest Russia is planning to stage a referendum in the captured region of Kherson to legitimise it as a breakaway republic.
