What British people really think of Saudi Arabia: Country ranks below Russia, Turkey and China on 'allies' list

The British public are not keen on the alliance with the kingdom - with 37% brandng it 'unfriendly'

While British politicians and diplomats remain quiet over Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses - including the recent controversial execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the general public are less keen on the alliance

UK nationals consider Russia, China and Turkey to be closer allies than Saudi Arabia, according to a new poll revealing Britons maintain a dim view of the Middle Eastern nation.

While British politicians and diplomats remain quiet over Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses - including the recent controversial execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr - the general public are less keen on the alliance, with 37% saying they think the country is “unfriendly”.

While France and Germany ranked highly as both an ally and a country with good human rights, Saudi Arabia was among the worst performing on the list (YouGov)

The YouGov poll asked members of the public to rank 10 countries on their human rights records and whether or not Britain should be an enemy or an ally of that nation.

While France and Germany ranked highly as both an ally and a country with good human rights, Saudi Arabia was among the worst performing on the list.

The US ranked as Britain’s closest ally, with 87% of those polled saying we should maintain friendly relations. France and Germany came second and third, with 83% and 82% respectively.

America fared less well on the human rights front, however, with 23% of those polled saying the country needs to do more to improve its record, compared with 10% criticising Germany and just 5% condemning France.

While Saudi Arabia is officially considered Britain’s closest ally in the Middle East, 39% said the country should be thought of as an enemy state. Its reputation for human rights was even worse - level with Bashar al-Assad’s brutal Syrian regime, with 80% of people saying they had a “bad” record.

That puts Saudi Arabia even lower on the human rights list than Iran, although the public concedes the Saudis are more of an ally to Britain than the openly hostile Tehran government.

Despite repeated sanctions against Russia over its transgressions in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s government fares surprisingly well in the list – with 42% saying they considered Moscow an ally. Its human rights record was roundly condemned, however, with just 12% ranking it as “good”.

The conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank continue to take their toll of the British public’s view on Israel, with just 25% of people saying the country should be considered an enemy state and 54% ranking them as having a bad human rights record.

Turkey fares equally poorly with 57% criticising their human rights record and 26% saying the UK should consider them our enemy. But despite China’s appalling human rights record, which 78% of people described as ‘bad’ 63% of the general public still consider the Asian nation a key ally.