Flags have been flown at half-mast at Government buildings across the country following the death of the Saudi king but the tribute angered critics of the country's human rights record.
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz died on Thursday night, aged 90, after almost two decades leading the oil-rich country.
Downing Street and Whitehall buildings, including Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, were instructed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to fly the Union Flag at half-mast for 12 hours in tribute.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the king's death and Prince Charles set off for Riyadh to pay his repsects on behalf of the Queen.
But others have voiced anger at the tributes to a king who presided over a country where a woman was recently beheaded in public, a blogger was sentenced to receive 1,000 lashes for 'insulting Islam' and where women have long been banned from driving.
Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, dismissed the flag tribute as "a steaming pile of nonsense", adding that it was "a stupid act on its own and a stupid precedent to set".
Former Conservative MP for Corby, Louise Mensch, took to twitter to vent her anger, tweeting: "It is so unacceptable to offer deep condolences for a man who flogged women, didn't let them drive, saw guardian laws passed and starves them."
She even tweeted "F*** YOU" in reply to a tweet from the British Embassy in Riyadh which quoted the Prime Minister's sorrow at the king's death.
The head of Amnesty International implored the world not to forget the country's human rights abuses amidst the tributes to the dead king.
Salil Shetty said: "The Saudi regime seems insensitive to human rights and human dignity and unfortunately they are also protected by many Western countries because they have oil and because they are seen as allies in the fight against terrorism."
But Westminster Abbey argued refusing to lower its flag would not have helped the "desperately oppressed Christian communities of the Middle East".
"For us not to fly at half-mast would be to make a noticeably aggressive comment on the death of the king of a country to which the UK is allied in the fight against Islamic terrorism," a spokesman said.
A spokesman for UKIP leader Nigel Farage said lowering the flags showed "respect for an ally in the war against terror" and that the issue of human rights should be taken up with the new king.
But one of his MPs, Douglas Carswell, disagreed, saying officials had seriously blundered and showed "immoral" values far from those of the British public.
Referencing the civil service mandarin from television series Yes Minister, he said: "Sir Humphrey's values need to be aligned more closely to people in this country rather than being quite so immoral.
"Saudi Arabia is a country that doesn't let women drive and publicly executes people."
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