Time spent on efforts to free Egyptian ‘extremist’ became ‘running joke’ inside No 10

The campaign to free Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah not only distracted Keir Starmer’s government from bread-and-butter domestic political issues, but, according to insiders, became something of a running joke among those frustrated by the slow pace of change.

The time and energy spent on freeing el-Fattah was emblematic of a government struggling to stay focused on voters’ core priorities amid persistent pressure from “well-connected” activist groups.

Paul Ovenden, who stood down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, said the amount of time dedicated to freeing el-Fattah was a drag on government business.

“We don’t have to import antisemitic Islamists who wish us harm,” Ovenden wrote in an article for The Times.

“And we certainly don’t have to treat British citizenship as a scrap of paper.

“On all this and more, we can simply choose not to.”

El-Fattah was released from prison in Egypt last September and arrived in Britain on Boxing Day, following a long campaign backed by celebrities and senior politicians from all parties.

However, a lengthy trail of posts on X showed the Egyptian had called for the killing of Zionists, and made anti-British and anti-white remarks.

Ovenden said: “We would be having long meetings on the priorities of the government, and often they would be railroaded via any other business into discussions of this gentleman.

“Most of us on the political side of government weren’t that aware of it – weren’t that tuned into it – because it didn’t impact us on a day-to-day basis. It actually became a bit of a kind of a running joke within government that people would always find a way to bring it back to this conversation.”

He said the case was a symptom of “the sheer weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time”.

Ovenden identified Abd el-Fattah’s case as just one of several distractions from the government’s main objectives, alongside rows over reparations to former colonies and proposals to ban smoking in pub gardens.

In his Times article, he argued that Labour has fallen victim to what he calls a “Stakeholder State” that has shifted “politics and power away from voters”.

Ovenden accused the civil service of being preoccupied by “political folderol”, and said the Abd el-Fattah case was considered a “totem of the ceaseless sapping of time and energy by people obsessed with fringe issues” by his former colleagues.

He added that he was “surprised” to hear Fattah’s release described as a “priority” for the government.

Starmer attracted criticism after posting on X that he was “delighted” El-Fattah had arrived in the UK, having been granted citizenship under the previous government as a result of his British mother.

Responding to Ovenden’s article, one senior government official told the Politico Playbook news site: “You can trust Paul to see it and say how it really is — and I’m sure Keir agrees with every word.”