Overview
- Alaa Abd el-Fattah arrived in Britain after Egypt lifted a travel ban months after his September pardon, reuniting with family following years in detention.
- Keir Starmer, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper publicly welcomed his return, with No 10 later saying they were unaware of the old posts and that the messages were not an endorsement of his views.
- The Foreign Office said the historic tweets were “abhorrent”, as Conservative shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick urged Starmer to retract his remarks and called for citizenship revocation and deportation.
- Jewish organisations, including the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, criticised the “effusive” welcome and raised safety concerns given recent antisemitic attacks.
- The posts, widely shared and dating to around 2010–2012, could not be independently verified by PA; they previously led to a withdrawn Sakharov Prize nomination, and Abd el-Fattah has said past comments were taken out of context.