Saudi Arabia executions: David Cameron delays planned visit to Riyadh

But Government sources claim the postponed visit is unrelated to last Friday's 47 executions

Prince Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz, right, with British Prime Minister David Cameron (Getty)

David Cameron has postponed a planned visit to Saudi Arabia, but Downing Street claimed the delay was unrelated to the mass executions carried out by the Gulf State on Friday.

He was due to travel to Riyadh for a high-profile tour of the country within weeks but the trip is unlikely to go ahead for at least two months.

It comes after the Prime Minister was heavily criticised for his "shameful" response to the 47 executions that were conducted by Saudi Arabia on a single day at the end of last week and only broke his silence on Monday to repeat a Government press release saying he was "opposed to the use of the death penalty under any circumstances".

He is also facing questions after The Independent reveald that the British Government left Saudi Arabia off a list of thirty countries to be challenged by diplomats over their continued use of the death penalty - despite executing over 90 people a year.

Senior Government officials told The Times that delaying Mr Cameron's visit to Riyadh was not linked to the mass executions, which included the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and triggered a diplomatic crisis with Iran and other states in the Middle East.

They suggested the delay was due to Mr Cameron's on-going efforts to renegotiate Britain's membership of the European Union, which he had hoped would be sorted by now.

Ministers will come under pressure to explain its relationship with Saudi Arabia in the House of Commons on Tuesday, with an Urgent Question on the matter set to be debated later this afternoon.

Charities have accused him of "bending over backwards to avoid criticising Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record," while Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the time had come to “shine a light” into the “shady corners” of the UK relationship with the Saudi regime.

Shadow human rights minister Andy Slaughter wrote to Justice Secretary Michael Gove demanding that the Government publish a 'memorandum of understanding' signed between the UK and Saudi Arabia in 2014.

Labour said the UK Government must suspend its cooperation on judicial issues with the Saudi state following the executions.