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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has expressed regret to the BBC for welcoming British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK, following the discovery of past social media posts that included calls to kill Zionists.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Keir reiterated that the posts were “abhorrent” and stated he “should have been made aware and I wasn’t”.
The Conservative Party, Reform UK, and several senior Labour MPs have urged that Mr. Abd El Fattah be stripped of his British citizenship as a consequence of these posts.
The Prime Minister has initiated a review into what he termed a “failing in the system.”
The UK has historically advocated for Mr. Abd El Fattah’s relocation to the UK under both Conservative and Labour administrations, yet senior politicians in successive governments appear to have been unaware of his social media history.
On Boxing Day, Sir Keir stated he was “delighted” the activist had arrived in the UK and had been “reunited with his loved ones” after his release from an Egyptian prison.
Speaking to the programme, Sir Keir said “of course I regret that,” emphasizing the “abhorrent” nature of Mr. Abd El Fattah’s posts.
He stated: “As I’ve made clear, I didn’t know about those comments at the time of welcoming El Fattah to this country.”
When questioned by Ms. Kuenssberg as to why no one in government appeared to have “bothered to check” Mr. Abd El Fattah’s background, the Prime Minister responded that he had posed the same question to the involved team, “because I do think I should have been made aware and I wasn’t made aware.”
He added: “Yes, it’s a failing within the system, it shouldn’t have happened and I wasn’t very pleased about it when I found out, hence we’re taking remedial action.”
The Prime Minister further explained that Mr. Abd El Fattah’s case had been treated as a “consular case” by embassy officials, as the government had a duty to intervene when a British national was “being treated in an improper way in another country.”
“That’s why I acted in this case,” he stated, adding, “Actually, previous prime ministers acted in exactly the same way in the actions they took to try and get him released, because that’s what happens in consular cases.”
Mr. Abd El Fattah had been the most prominent of Egypt’s political prisoners, with human rights groups alleging he had been unfairly detained for 12 years, his most recent conviction stemming from sharing a Facebook post about torture in the country.
The 44-year-old holds dual nationality and was granted UK citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother, during the Conservative government under Home Secretary Priti Patel.
His release from prison followed a protracted campaign by his family – supported by celebrities such as actors Judi Dench and Olivia Colman – and lobbying by the British government.
Mr. Abd El Fattah flew to the UK to reunite with his 14-year-old son in Brighton on Boxing Day, but social media posts originally made in 2012 quickly resurfaced.
In one post, Mr. Abd El Fattah appears to state he considers “killing any colonialists and specially Zionists heroic, we need to kill more of them.”
Another appears to say, “I am a racist, I don’t like white people,” and in another, he is accused of saying police do not have rights and “we should kill them all.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews stated the case was of “profound concern” and demonstrates an “astonishing lack of due diligence by the authorities.”
Adrian Cohen, the Board’s senior vice-president, said: “His previous extremist and violent rhetoric aimed at ‘Zionists’ and white people in general is threatening to British Jews and the wider public.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick stated that Mr. Abd El Fattah’s social media showed he had “extremist views that are completely incompatible with British values” and he should “be made to live in Egypt or frankly anywhere else in the world.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage stated that previous Conservative and Labour governments had “opened our doors to evil people,” adding that he would change the law to strip Mr. Abd El Fattah of his British citizenship and have him deported.
Mr. Abd El Fattah has “unequivocally” apologized for the tweets, stating the comments were “expressions of a young man’s anger.”
However, within hours of his apology, BBC News established that his Facebook account had liked another user’s post which described criticism of him as a “relentless smear campaign” being waged by “the richest man in the world, a couple of Middle East intelligence services, and a few Zionist organisations.”
Stripping a person of their British citizenship has typically only been done in cases linked to terrorism or serious organised crime where someone is deemed a national security threat.
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