“Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a review into what she calls “serious information failures” in the case of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah.
It comes after the Conservatives and Reform UK called for the activist to be stripped of UK citizenship and deported after social media posts in which he called for Zionists and police to be killed resurfaced.”
I would like a review into why he was granted British citizenship in the first place.
To the best of my knowledge, he was granted citizenship because his mother was a British citizen. She was granted citizenship because she was born here to a mother who was an international student originating from Egypt.
So, why are we now responsible for a man who has spent the entirety of his life in Egypt and is otherwise culturally Egyptian?
[deleted] on
[removed]
jammy_b on
“Next time we’ll know to bury this information before we comment”.
steepleton on
Is it that keir starmer is an actual idiot?
Flailing like a crisp packet caught in the wind, trying to please all sides but just dismaying everyone, left and right?
teachbirds2fly on
So the Foreign Secretary is going to review the massive, serious failings from the Foreign Secretary… I am sure there will be some constructive learnings….
There is no way we should expect the government to operate in the interests of the public when the political class has completely different values from the public. You can see here in the FT, views held almost universally by the public are highly contested in the political class, for example that people who move to the UK should be expected to adapt to the customs of the country.
There is just not a critical mass of people in our institutions that share the same values as the public on these questions.
Uniform764 on
I’d agree there should be an investigation into the process behind his citizenship application, there should probably be an onus on senior politicians to check the facts themselves themselves before they nail their colours to the mast and tweet smugly
UuusernameWith4Us on
Meanwhile earlier today:
> Khaled Hassan on X: Cairo has outright rejected Starmer’s reported assertion that he was unaware of Alaa’s record of incitement to violence, maintaining that British officials were explicitly briefed on the matter. https://x.com/Khaledhzakariah/status/2005473072585883937?s=20
Khaled Hassan is an “Egyptian-British national security and foreign policy expert” according to his bio on the telegraph website.
Our side spoke to their side at the highest levels. Egypt insist they told British officials but our politicians insist no one told them. If someone was told why did the message go missing? Did anyone on our side raise concerns? Were they ignored?Â
lazzzym on
Hold up…. Wasn’t this whole process started by the Tories? Surely they can answer the question.
ne6c on
> As you will know, the PM, DPM and Foreign Secretary and I were all unaware of those historical tweets and we consider them abhorrent. Based on the work I instigated in the FCDO over the weekend, it is apparent not only that current and former ministers were never briefed on those tweets when they spoke publicly about this case in the past, but also that the civil servants in charge of this case were unaware.
So the FCDO civil servants that worked the case are surely getting the boot for gross incompetence?
pajamakitten on
No one was listening and legitimate concerns will have been dismissed by someone higher up who hoped this story would make Labour look good. Isn’t that how these stories usually go?
11 Comments
“Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a review into what she calls “serious information failures” in the case of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah.
It comes after the Conservatives and Reform UK called for the activist to be stripped of UK citizenship and deported after social media posts in which he called for Zionists and police to be killed resurfaced.”
I would like a review into why he was granted British citizenship in the first place.
To the best of my knowledge, he was granted citizenship because his mother was a British citizen. She was granted citizenship because she was born here to a mother who was an international student originating from Egypt.
So, why are we now responsible for a man who has spent the entirety of his life in Egypt and is otherwise culturally Egyptian?
[removed]
“Next time we’ll know to bury this information before we comment”.
Is it that keir starmer is an actual idiot?
Flailing like a crisp packet caught in the wind, trying to please all sides but just dismaying everyone, left and right?
So the Foreign Secretary is going to review the massive, serious failings from the Foreign Secretary… I am sure there will be some constructive learnings….
Next step in the Rhodesia Solution, the inquiry!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pGJH_-S_MGs
There is no way we should expect the government to operate in the interests of the public when the political class has completely different values from the public. You can see here in the FT, views held almost universally by the public are highly contested in the political class, for example that people who move to the UK should be expected to adapt to the customs of the country.
https://x.com/JochenBittner/status/1971473292633763941
There is just not a critical mass of people in our institutions that share the same values as the public on these questions.
I’d agree there should be an investigation into the process behind his citizenship application, there should probably be an onus on senior politicians to check the facts themselves themselves before they nail their colours to the mast and tweet smugly
Meanwhile earlier today:
> Khaled Hassan on X: Cairo has outright rejected Starmer’s reported assertion that he was unaware of Alaa’s record of incitement to violence, maintaining that British officials were explicitly briefed on the matter.
https://x.com/Khaledhzakariah/status/2005473072585883937?s=20
Khaled Hassan is an “Egyptian-British national security and foreign policy expert” according to his bio on the telegraph website.
And according to the Guardian:
> When Labour came to power, Starmer continued lobbying the Egyptian president over Abd el-Fattah, ongoing imprisonment, making three calls to his Egyptian counterpart, while the UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, also personally urged the Egyptians to end the detention.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/28/successive-uk-governments-face-questions-over-support-for-activist-alaa-abd-el-fattah
Our side spoke to their side at the highest levels. Egypt insist they told British officials but our politicians insist no one told them. If someone was told why did the message go missing? Did anyone on our side raise concerns? Were they ignored?Â
Hold up…. Wasn’t this whole process started by the Tories? Surely they can answer the question.
> As you will know, the PM, DPM and Foreign Secretary and I were all unaware of those historical tweets and we consider them abhorrent. Based on the work I instigated in the FCDO over the weekend, it is apparent not only that current and former ministers were never briefed on those tweets when they spoke publicly about this case in the past, but also that the civil servants in charge of this case were unaware.
So the FCDO civil servants that worked the case are surely getting the boot for gross incompetence?
No one was listening and legitimate concerns will have been dismissed by someone higher up who hoped this story would make Labour look good. Isn’t that how these stories usually go?