Labour launches urgent investigation into ‘serious failures’ in Alaa Abd El-Fattah case but REFUSES to deport

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had previously said he was “delighted” at the return of Abd El-Fattah, who had posted on social media in 2012: “I am a racist, I don’t like white people”.

In another, El-Fattah says he considers “killing any colonialists and specially Zionists heroic, we need to kill more of them”, also saying police do not have rights and “we should kill them all”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “As Yvette Cooper sets out in her letter, the historic tweets by Alaa Abd El-Fattah are absolutely abhorrent.

“With the rise of antisemitism, and recent horrific attacks, I know this has added to the distress of many in the Jewish community in the UK. We are taking steps to review the information failures in this case.”

In a letter to Dame Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms Cooper said: “”It is clear that this has been an unacceptable failure and that long-standing procedures and due diligence arrangements have been completely inadequate for this situation.

“[This has lead] to the serious problem of successive Foreign Secretaries and Prime Ministers making public statements without all relevant information.”

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The Foreign Secretary continued: “I am deeply concerned that the unexpected emergence of these historical tweets, coming alongside the social media posts that I and other senior politicians sent on Boxing Day welcoming the conclusion of this long-running case and Mr El Fattah’s reunion with his family, have added to the distress felt by Jewish communities in the UK, and I very much regret that.”

Mr Abd El–Fattah, who was born in Egypt in 1981, became known as a political activist, spending years in and out of detention and was a symbol of opposition against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

He was imprisoned on charges of spreading false news, in a process branded a breach of international law by UN investigators.

After being pardoned in September following years of lobbying by Conservative and Labour governments, he flew to the UK on Boxing Day.

In his statement, Abd El–Fattah said: “I unequivocally apologise.

“(The posts) 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.”

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Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp labelled his statement an “insincere apology”, as he called for his Government counterpart Shabana Mahmood to strip Mr Abd El–Fattah of his citizenship.

Reform UK, which also called for Mr Abd El-Fattah’s deportation, criticised the Conservatives for not having scrutinised his past social media more when they started diplomatic efforts to bring him to the UK.

A spokesman said: “Alaa Abd El-Fattah was granted British citizenship in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government. Liz Truss and James Cleverly both personally intervened on his case.

“Kemi Badenoch was minister of state for local government, faith and communities when Alaa Abd El-Fattah was granted citizenship…The Conservatives cannot be trusted.”

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Senior Government sources told The Times there were no grounds for stripping his citizenship.

They pointed to case law from 2016 has established this can only be done in cases of fraud or in the cases of dangerous criminals and terrorists.