As authoritarian abuses are on the rise worldwide, help us push back

The P45 was not the biggest joke in May’s speech

Published: 04/10/2017

The P45 was not the biggest joke in May’s speech

Surely the most audacious comedy moment in Theresa May’s speech was her claim to be a 'moral lead in the world... By Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve
By Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve 4 October 2017

In her speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester today, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, said she intended to ‘build an outwards looking Britain’, and act as a ‘moral lead in the world’.

Surely the most audacious comedy moment in Theresa May’s speech was not the P45 skit, but her claim to be a ‘moral lead in the world. She was describing a Government that has trained Saudi secret police in techniques for hacking activists’ phones, paid for guards in Bahrain’s notorious torture prison, and given unconditional support to Donald Trump’s devastating drone campaign in Yemen. After entering the Foreign Office in 2011 William Hague endorsed a more ‘open and transparent’ approach to aiding regimes which carry out abuses, but Mrs May has squandered this legacy and instead sought to prop up dodgy dictatorships in secret.

Read more…

Britain’s cash and Bahrain’s firing squads – 5 things we’ve learned

Share this post

Stay informed

Get the latest updates on Reprieve’s work and how you can help

More Latest updates

images-3

Published: 03/09/26

2 minute(s)

"I WANT MY SON'S BODY BACK" - SAUDI EXECUTIONS LEAVE FAMILIES UNABLE TO GRIEVE

The Spanish newspaper El País has reported on the agony faced by the families of people executed by Saudi Arabia due to the regime’s failure to return the bodies of those killed to their relatives. Along with being one of the worlds top-executing countries – there have been…

images

Published: 03/09/26

2 minute(s)

UK POLICE TRAINING FORCES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ABUSING GOVERNMENTS - REPRIEVE AND DECLASSIFIED

A new investigation by Declassified has found that British police have run more than a dozen training sessions since 2023 for countries that the UK Government has flagged for their poor human rights record. Declassified’s FOI revealed that the UK’s College of Policing has run multiple training sessions…

Jagtar

Published: 14/08/26

2 minute(s)

NEW SPECIAL Envoy for Complex Consular Cases MEETS WITH JAGTAR SINGH JOHAL'S FAMILY - BBC reports

The newly appointed government Envoy for Complex Consular Cases, Alistair Burt, met with the family of detained human rights activist, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has now been imprisoned in India for almost nine years. Mr Burt, a former UK minister for the Middle East, met with Gurpreet Singh…