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"?

Starmer has been made a fool of by this Tory bear trap.

How?
Are you suggesting that the tories knew about AAEF, but Labour didn't?

Tory bear trap ffs. This extremist is known for his extreme views but nah its all the Tories fault. Let's be more bothered about the Tories than a person who has made it clear he hates certain sections of society and happily wishes death on them. He's a racist, antisemitic homophobic danger to any western society. Looking forward to this debate in the Commons.

Of course they did! He became a British citizen on their watch. Without that (he waited many years until he was able to use the fact his mother was British born to gain citizenship) Labour wouldn't have been able to get him out of Egypt. Both Tories and Labour are equally to blame that we have this person living here among us.

Starmer was simply passed the baton by the previous government. There has been a long running campaign at high level to get this guy out of jail & out of Egypt. Sunak took time at COP27 to have one to one meeting with the Egyptian president to plead on his behalf. There was no reason for Starmer or his staff to investigate tweets from 10-15 years ago. The assumption was that all due diligence had been done by the previous administration.

Priti Patel was Home Secretary when el-Fattah was granted UK citizenship. I think we need to hear the explanation from her before condemning Starmer.

I’m happy to answer- I always do. I don’t know what should be done in this situation. I am happy to leave it in the hands of experts. Apparantly, he has apologised undeservedly for the tweets which are 15years old. And,also apparantly, the threshold for revoking his citizenship has not been met. And, at a risk of being accused of whataboutery again, it is interesting that Lucy Connelly’s tweets are being excused because the time when she tweeted them was very angry and inflamed. Exactly the same is being said about El-Fattah- “Egyptian social media was a very angry place at the time”

If the existence of these tweets would have prevented him gaining citizenship had the right people known about them, then surely the citizenship can be revoked because the conditions haven't been met... the authorities just thought they had.

If the existence of these tweets wouldn't have prevented him gaining citizenship even if they were widely known, we are utterly fucked and the immigration system is completely unfit for purpose.

Ridiculous. Have some accountability.

Well they were ones who gave him citizenship.

Well, it was them gave him citizenship……

Yes... and Starmer made it a "top priority" when he took office, apparently.

has apologised undeservedly for the tweets which are 15years old
he liked a post saying that the reporting of his tweets is a Zionist plot, so that apologie isn’t worth much when he continues with his antisemitism bullshit

He was already a citizen when Starmer took office.

Of course. He wasn’t here yet, Starmer worked hard to get a ban overturned so he could be.

@PrettyDamnCosmic see my post @ 16.46.
Both Tories and Labour are to blame.
As far as Starmer is concerned why was it a priority for his government to have Egypt let el-Fattah travel back here, as he specifically stated? Why the effusive welcome which he must be heartily regretting now that it's opened a huge can of worms? And yes Priti Patel needs to answer questions as does Sunak. PMQ next week should be interesting.

Exactly. A few wanting to exclude Starmer as per, thankfully most can see through that.

Congratulations, this has to be one of the most stupid things I’ve ever read. Yaxley Lennon is British.

Why not? It has been a long running aim of HM Government to get el-Fattah released. It was any easy task for Starmer at zero cost & little effort. I suspect in future Labour will be a bit more circumspect about pursuing Tory policies uncritically.

One would hope his citizenship could be revoked but we appear to have been blessed with government ministers of both major parties who appear to have no balls between the lot of them.

Starmer actions would be the same for any British citizen.

Come on, it’s his policy decision. He could have checked he’s not a child.

But why did Starmer make it a top priority? There was no other Tory policy that he made a similar top priority, was there? Other Brits with dual nationality are/have been imprisoned overseas e.g. Iran while Emily Damari was left to rot for months in a Hamas tunnel. No matter how hard her British mother petitioned on her daughter's behalf, Starmer and Lammy refused to even meet her, unlike el-Fattah's mother and sister.

It's still not a bear trap but as I said, distracting to Tory blame gives extremists room to hide.

Don't you find it weird that both Labour and the Tories were in total agreement that this man should be their 'top priority'. I haven't recently come across another issue that both parties seemed to be in total agreement about. Normally there's a little grumbling about slight differences of opinion or claims that 'their hands are tied'. But on this case both parties are blindly falling over themselves to welcome him back.

Nope. Emily Damari, also a dual British citizen due to her mother being British same as el-Fattah, wasn't helped at all by the British government.

Absolutely correct @Fluffyholeysocks. Not only welcome el-Fattah back but casting blame on each other for allowing him back now the shit has hit the fan.