Rishi Sunak failed to bring up the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as he met Mohammed bin Salman today.
The PM held one-on-one talks with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince at a luxury resort in Bali as they both attended the G20 summit.
The Gulf state leader, known as MBS, is accused of ordering the assassination of Mr Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Mr Sunak used the meeting this morning to encourage Riyadh to produce more oil and gas as the disruption of supplies from Russia pushes up prices around the world.
But Downing Street admitted the PM did not mention the 2018 killing. "He didn't raise specific individual cases,’ his spokesman said. "That's not normally the norm in these sorts of things."
The Prime Minister's spokesman added: "They had a fairly lengthy discussion on some of the work by Saudi Arabia in recent years to improve on social reforms.
"They talked about issues like women's rights and the need for more progress on freedoms in the kingdom."
He went on: "They had a good discussion. I think it was an honest discussion about the importance of the relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia."
Saudi Arabia, which leads the Opec alliance of oil-producing nations, has faced criticism for agreeing to cut production starting in November, in the face of global shortages.
The move strained relations with western nations including the US, which said the cut effectively benefits Russia, another Opec member, at a time when they are trying to choke off Moscow's oil revenue to undercut its war in Ukraine.
Mr Sunak's predecessor Boris Johnson faced accusations of going from "dictator to dictator" to find new fuel sources when he visited Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year.
