Today Theresa May will host Turkey’s Recep Erdogan in Downing Street.
This is Amnesty International’s latest report on human rights in his country: “Dissent was ruthlessly suppressed, with journalists, political activists and human rights defenders among those targeted.
“Instances of torture continued to be reported, but in lower numbers than in the weeks following the coup attempt of July 2016.
“Any effective investigation of human rights violations by state officials was prevented by pervasive impunity.”
Prime Ministers of all parties have had to deal with some undesirable heads of state over the years.
Robert Mugabe, Nicolae Ceaușescu and, most recently, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman have all been bestowed state visits.
But there is a growing fear the consequences of Brexit mean we will have to sacrifice more of our moral authority on the altar of economic deal-making.
We have already seen the spectacle of Liam Fox claiming Britain had “shared values” with Rodrigo Duterte, the brutal leader of the Philippines.
It is especially rich that those Brexiteers who twisted the threat of Turkey’s potential membership of the EU to win referendum are now happy to kow-tow before Erdogan on his visit to London.
Boris Johnson, who played on fears about Turkey’s during the campaign and insulted Erdogan in a lewd poem , has since suggested we can do…
