Bahrain Mirror: British daily The Independent said that Bahrain was among 8 despotic regimes that funded trips of British MPs last year, according to an analysis of Parliament's register of interest.

The amounts spent by Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were from the Foreign Ministry of each other, and the cost amounted to £172,561 worth of flights, hotels, and other gifts, for a total of 53 trips. 

The eight countries "with autocratic governments [that] provided such gifts: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates", The Independent noted.

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: "MPs should not be taking hospitality from regimes with appalling human rights records. This is lobbying plain and simple. These despots aren't paying for transport and flashy hotels because they're nice people, they're doing it because they want to win friends and buy influence."

"At a time when UK bombs are creating a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, it is time for a total overhaul in UK foreign policy, not for closer relationships with dictatorships and human rights abusers."

Some MPs have previously defended going on such trips, stating that engagement with countries with poor records would help bring about political change.

A previous report issued by the UK Government had reported that Bahrain spend over £16 thousand to host 5 British MPs from the UK Conservative Party in the Manama Dialogue in December 2016.

British MPs, according to the aforementioned document, had previous flights to Bahrain in February 2016, to various purposes, among them meeting Bahraini Ministers and officials.

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