No 10 in row over Turkish president’s ‘red carpet’
THERESA May was accused of ‘rolling out the red carpet’ for Turkey’s controversial president, as she prepared for trade talks in Downing Street.
The Prime Minister will hold talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in No 10 today, amid criticism that she is hosting a ‘tyrant’.
President Erdogan, who is accused of stifling dissent in Turkey is also expected to meet the Queen during a lavish threeday visit which got under way yesterday.
Downing Street insisted Mrs May would not shy away from confronting Mr Erdogan over human rights abuses by his increasingly authoritarian regime.
But critics questioned why he was granted an audience with the Queen in the middle of an election campaign in which he is seeking to tighten his grip on power.
According to Amnesty International, more than 50,000 people remain in pretrial detention after a failed coup in 2016, with a similar number released on bail. Those detained include more than 100 journalists and nine Kurdish MPs.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable accused ministers of ‘rolling out the red carpet for a man with a disregard for human rights, who is responsible for alarming repression and violence’.
Former Labour minister David Lammy said: ‘He is a dictator and tyrant who locks up journalists, has installed a regime of brutal repression and torture and is butchering the Kurds.’