INTERNATIONAL Trade Secretary Liam Fox came under fire from human rights activists this evening for subsidising construction projects in repressive regimes.

Last week, Mr Fox’s department lent £49 million to a Saudi-owned company to build bridges in Sri Lanka.

And shortly before Christmas, it loaned £28 million to help British firm Bluewater Bio win a waterworks contract in oil-rich Bahrain.

Now activists are asking why taxpayers are effectively subsidising wealthy foreign actors, via Britain’s export finance scheme, at a time of austerity.

They also highlight that Mr Fox had to resign as Defence Secretary in 2011 over his controversial visits to Bahrain and Sri Lanka.

The minister had failed to declare the presence of his best man, the lobbyist Adam Werritty, at sensitive meetings he held in these countries.

Under his new brief as Britain’s trade envoy, Mr Fox returned to Bahrain last year.

Now the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) is warning that these latest loans could be a “toxic deal.”

Bird’s Director of Advocacy, Sayed Ahmed al-Wadaei, asked “Is Bahrain really in desperate need of loans?”

Mr Wadaei told the Morning Star: “In recent years, Bahrain was able to purchase multi-billion dollar weapon systems from the US and millions of pounds’ worth of arms from Britain.

“The king has even subsidised the construction cost of the Royal Navy’s new base in Bahrain. So I do question the wisdom of spending taxpayers’ money in this way.”

The new loan to Sri Lanka has also caused concern. It was awarded to Darlington-based engineering firm Cleveland Bridge, which is owned by Saudi conglomerate Al-Rushaid Group.

A spokesperson from Parai Voice of Freedom, a group of Tamil activist musicians, told the Morning Star: “It looks like Liam Fox is back to his old habits and we need to keep a close eye on him.

“It’s impossible for the Tamil community to trust Fox after what he did with Adam Werritty in Sri Lanka before, and his support for war criminals there.”

In 2011, it emerged that an opaque company called the Sri Lankan Development Trust (SLDT) had supplied thousands of pounds for Mr Fox to make multiple visits to war-torn Sri Lanka.

Some of the money from those trips came from the Sri Lankan government, and the SLDT stood to make millions in post-war infrastructure projects.

There is no suggestion that Mr Fox is currently involved in any wrongdoing. He said he was “delighted” by the latest loan for work in Sri Lanka.