To think that Kier Starmer shouldn't be welcoming extremists into Britain?

[Twiglets1]

Reported in The Telegraph today that Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed an alleged Islamist extremist, who labelled British people “dogs and monkeys” and called for Zionists to be killed, into the UK.

The Prime Minister said he was “delighted” that Alaa Abd el-Fattah had arrived from Egypt on Friday evening after a travel ban imposed by Cairo was lifted following lobbying by ministers.

Mr Abd el-Fattah, an activist with dual British-Egyptian citizenship, previously said that it was heroic to kill Zionists “including civilians”. He urged Londoners to burn Downing Street, told his supporters to kill police and said he hated white people.

Ministers are facing calls to revoke his British citizenship, which he was granted in 2021 while imprisoned in Egypt, where campaigners described him as a “prisoner of conscience”.

Sir Keir’s tweet yesterday said how “delighted” he was that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in this country. Does that seem a reasonable stance to take for someone who has claimed at the same time to be committed to "eradicating antisemitism in the UK"?

Well no one told Sunak or Patel did they, which presumably you accept?

But fundamentally the PM (any PM) and more importantly their comms team simply have to know about background crap like this before issuing statements - that's part of the job.

As a pp has said it's absolutely standard for Joe/Jane Average to have their social media screened as part of job applications these days.

In my working days at a bog standard FTSE 100 company internet use was monitored occasionally colleagues were fired for posting stuff they shouldn't have done.. given the resources HMG has and the amount of time this case has gone on I don't believe or one minute the PM or close advisors weren't aware of this particular individual's controversial "previous."

I have a horrible feeling the current PM or his team couldn't resist the urge to 'showboat" yesterday, possibly for PR or electoral reasons, and couldn't be bothered to think how badly some of what he said on X would actually play with a lot of the electorate.

Surely if someone is your 'top priority,' you'd have full knowledge of this person's views on the jewish community?

I honestly don't think Starmer knew. His wife is Jewish, do you think he would have expressed support if he knew this man is a holocaust denier?

It is a disgrace that no one bothered to do even a cursory bit of research into Abd el-Fattah from day one, but it seems as pp said more cock up than conspiracy?

Why on earth would I accept that?

Just like Starmer the previous lot should have exercised due diligence before supporting him, but that doesn't alter the fact Starmer's PM now and that he could have allocated some real blame for once with "Look who they supported and I saved us all from"

I honestly don't think Starmer knew. His wife is Jewish, do you think he would have expressed support if he knew this man is a holocaust denier?

Edited to add I'm sure that's what he'll claim if it comes to it, @PandoraSocks, but I really wouldn't want to assume it's so. As a PP said, if in Starmer's position you're going to make someone a "top priority" it's sensible to do some checking, so he's either a liar or a fool and neither looks good

And yes, I've often wondered how Mrs Starmer feels about this myself. It can't be easy being married to a man who has to seek favour with those who'd destroy her, but of course that's her issue to decide

So if Starmer didn't know, why describe this man as his top priority?

Who is he, and the rest of the shower of shitheads, trying to impress?

He wasn't born in the UK, his mother was.

Fair point. But he should havebeen arrested on arrival, not welcomed by the PM.

I did but wouldn’t next time.

I’m politically homeless now 😢

I've been politically homeless for years. Independent candidates are where it's at now.

Apologies. I had misread. I will get MNHQ to remove my post.

@Alexandra2001 you’ve got a bee in your bonnet that Sunak was culpable too & needs punishing if the electorate are to blame Starmer. But the reality is, we have no way of punishing Sunak for his past errors of judgement (putting it kindly) because he’s not doing the same job any more.

The prime minister of this country shouldn’t be welcoming extremists into the UK in my opinion. If people disagree they can vote YABU. If they agree then they vote YANBU.

I would be surprised if anyone could disagree with you about this. Feels clearly awful.

Well I haven’t and I’ve always voted for a main party in the past ( despite often having reservations). For one thing I know women fought hard to get the vote so I don’t like the idea of not exercising my right to vote but honestly… the choice is dire these days.

11% have currently voted to disagree with me 🤷🏼‍♀️

We have a number of antisemites on the site. The posts get deleted but the posters are not banned.

I know … this is something I don’t understand about MN.

Maybe they would say it encourages healthy debate but who wants to debate with antisemites? Not me.

It's been discussed on many threads, Twiglets, and the view's often expressed that they're left alone because the natural outrage drives posts

It only works if people give them the oxygen of attention though, and like yourself I'm not interested in doing that with racists of any stripe

Exactly, all racism is wrong and I try to just report & ignore obviously racist posts. Very hard sometimes though.

One would think so

Another example of why UK citizenship shouldn't be handed out as merely a legal technicality. Anyone applying for citizenship should have to live here for a minimum number of years and to demonstrably prove they are both an asset and not a danger to the country.

He appears to be a dual national so revoke and deport. Why on earth do we need this violent, racist religious zealous here? How much is it going to cost for the overstretched security services to monitor him?

And yet today the poll illustrates that 11% support this extremist hate filled person being able to live here and retain British citizenship.
Beggars belief.

Same here. Have always voted but last time I knew my Labour MP would win so I wrote 'none of the above.' Frankly it's terrifying that we find ourselves politically homeless.