Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls for Alaa Abd El-Fattah to be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported over historic posts which the Government has condemned as ‘abhorrent’
British MPs have been forced to backtrack after past tweets emerged from an activist who was recently welcomed into the UK after being released from an Egyptian prison. Sir Keir Starmer is now facing calls for Alaa Abd El-Fattah to be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported over his historic tweets.
The Prime Minister faces criticism for celebrating Mr El-Fattah’s return to the UK on Boxing Day, after posts emerged dating back to 2010 in which the activist appeared to call for violence towards Zionists and the police.
The Government has since condemned the posts as “abhorrent”, while Mr El-Fattah apologised for the tweets in a statement, saying some had been “completely twisted out of their meaning”.
The Foreign Office said on Sunday: “The Government condemns Mr El-Fattah’s historic tweets and considers them to be abhorrent.”
This was added to a statement issued earlier, which read: “Mr El-Fattah is a British citizen. It has been a long-standing priority under successive governments to work for his release from detention, and to see him reunited with his family in the UK.”
Before the tweets emerged, Sir Keir had celebrated his arrival back in Britain, saying on Friday: “I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is among those to have called for Mr El-Fattah to be deported following the emergence of the posts, telling the Daily Mail : “I do not want people who hate Britain coming to our country.”
The posts, written mainly between 2010 and 2011, appear to be from Mr El-Fattah’s X (Twitter) account but could not be verified by the Press Association. According to the Daily Mail, in one he wrote: “I consider killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic”, while another read, “I seriously, seriously, seriously hate white people, especially those of English or Dutch or German descent”.
In another he appeared to deny the Holocaust, while shortly after that, he tweeted: “Dear Zionists, please don’t ever talk to me, I’m a violent person who advocated the killing of all Zionists including civilians, so f*** off.”
In August 2011, when London was in the grip of riots, Mr Abd El-Fattah wrote: “Go burn the city or Downing Street or hunt police, you fools.” He said the police were “not human”, adding: “We should just kill them all”.
It is understood that Sir Keir was not aware of the social media posts at the time he welcomed Mr El-Fattah’s return to the UK. A Downing Street source rejected the idea that welcoming Mr Abd El-Fattah’s return was an endorsement of his political views.
In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Abd El-Fattah said: “I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship.
“Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.
“They were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth.
“I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.”
However, the posts have forced an embarrassing climbdown from MPs who had campaigned for Mr El-Fattah’s release from prison and return to the UK.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns, a former chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said she felt “deeply let down, and frankly betrayed” after learning of Mr El-Fattah’s “grotesque tweets”, having supported his cause.
Writing on X before Mr El-Fattah issued his apology, she said: “It is wholly improper for British citizens to be detained without due process by foreign states; however, Alaa must unequivocally apologise and make clear he now wholly rejects the hatred and antisemitism he expressed which is so wholly incompatible with British values.”
Iain Duncan Smith wrote on X: “I do… regret signing the letter calling for the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, given his views, that have since come to light, are utterly abhorrent. Had I known of these I would not have signed the letter. I urge the police to investigate the nature of these extremist comments.”
Mr Abd El-Fattah was detained in Egypt in September 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.
His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by UN investigators, and he was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in September after years of lobbying by Conservative and Labour governments.
He flew to the UK on Boxing Day and was reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton, after a travel ban was lifted
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has called for Mr El-Fattah to be stripped of his citizenship, which he reportedly obtained through his UK-born mother. He was granted UK citizenship in December 2021, when current Tory frontbencher Priti Patel was home secretary, and Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak both pressed Egypt’s president for his release during their time as prime minister.
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