THE government has pulled out of a deal to sell prisons “expertise” to Saudi Arabia as a 74-year-old jailed Briton faces 350 lashes there for making wine.

The U-turn is a major embarrassment following a row between the Department of Justice, which wanted the deal cancelled, and the Foreign Office.

The government likes to tout its prisons know-how to several of the world’s most repressive regimes. The latest Saudi deal was worth £5.9 million.

It emerged yesterday that Briton Karl Andree was languishing in a Saudi prison awaiting 350 lashes for brewing his own wine.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced withdrawal of Britain’s bid for the prisons contract and said he would press for Mr Andree’s release.

Mr Andree’s son Simon said: “I’m pleased. It has taken an awful long time.”

He said he believed business dealings with Saudi Arabia seemed to have taken precedence over his father’s plight.

“He’s a British citizen — we have British citizens locked up around the world and it is the responsibility of the British government to help him.”

Former oil industry worker Mr Andree has lived in the Middle East for 25 years.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called in his autumn conference speech for the prisons contract bid to be scrapped.

Yesterday he said: “David Cameron has been shamed into a U-turn on this terrible contract — but why on earth was it set up in the first place?

“We should be sending a strong message to repressive regimes that the UK is a beacon for human rights and that this contract bid is unacceptable in the 21st century and would damage Britain’s standing in the world.”

And campaigners slammed the government for not pressing Saudi Arabia over its dismal human rights record.

Kate Higham, caseworker at human rights organisation Reprieve, said: “It is extremely welcome that the Prime Minister has dropped the Ministry of Justice’s Saudi prisons bid — the decision could not have come soon enough.

“This deal, if it had gone ahead, would have meant the UK was complicit in the same system that is threatening to execute juveniles Ali al-Nimr and Dawoud al-Marhoon for the ‘crime’ of protesting. Britain’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, however, remains extremely strong.”

Amnesty International spokesman Allan Hogarth said: “Many questions remain unanswered, what was the rationale behind pursuing a partnership with a prison system that doles out floggings, paralysis, amputations and beheadings?

“With blogger Raif Badawi who was publicly flogged at the start of this year sitting in one Saudi prison cell, young protester Ali al-Nimr awaiting execution in another and Brit Karl Andree dealing with the mental torment of being flogged in yet another, we need to be freely speaking out about Saudi prisons, not cosying up to Riyadh.”