> we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.

They spun off a separate instance of iCloud for China which is fully compliant with local regulations (i.e. backdoored), but that instance is operated by a third party so I guess Apple can wave their hands and say it's technically not their backdoor. "We will never sell you out unless access to a huge market is on the line" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

The means no end to end encryption for photos, notes, etc.

Is it possible for the uk gov government to request access and then ban Apple from speaking about it?

I long ago joke that closed source software and hardware should probably be illegal. The joke seems to age well. You can still have your walled garden and imprison your customers as long as you offer enough value. Owning their data is a contradiction in terms. If you make the design and the code available any spying would have to be written into law, formally announced and strictly defined. If you want to be stubborn about it you can design it in a way that doesn't allow it. If enough others are using the protocol you can hardly be blamed for creating it.