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"?

The BBC are reporting more on this story this morning, “the BBC understands that the activist’s messages had not been bought to the attention of the prime minister until they were highlighted in recent days - and the government considers them to be abhorrent”.

Is it credible to believe that the UK government were completely unaware of the messages, given his case was apparently such a high priority to them that his release was described as one of Starmer’s highest priorities since taking office? Could they all have been completely unaware? I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist but this sounds unbelievable to me.

They are racist/antisemitic homophobic bigots. In other words, deeply unpleasant people.

I agree with you OP. This filthy criminal should be locked up, not given a red carpet welcome. Depressing.

Starmer might want to start looking at the reliability and loyalty of his advisors.

It's absolutely ridiculous. He has an - albeit legal - incredibly tenuous claim to British citizenship (and yes, for the record, I also think rich people paying through the nose for new citizenships for tax purposes is bad), clearly hates the UK/the west (although not enough to refuse citizenship or consular assistance) - why have successive governments cared so much about this man, who has and will contribute nothing to the UK other than presumably costing it an arm and a leg?

Peopel are ignoring the tweets because they think that muslims expressing racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic etc views is acceptable in a way that non-muslims doing the same isn't. That's the long and the short of it, and if you think differently, you're a Torygraph-reading Stephen Yaxley Lennon plant.

For the record, I don't think he should be imprisoned for his tweets, and I'm aware they're from 10+ years ago and views change - but he was thirty-something when he posted these, not an edgy teenager, and he simply should not be our problem. Why does Britain continually make these problems for itself?

I doubt it. Why a personalised effort from the PM who is delighted, and made it a priority. All that effort and not a few minutes looking at background.

Absolutely… it’s literally unbelievable to me that these messages were completely unknown about by all the people campaigning for Alaa Abdel Fattah but it is possible that Starmer has been stitched up.

Either way, this reflects so badly on him and David Lammy & Yvette Cooper.

All we can hope for is that there is method in his madness. I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Starmer's unpopularity doesn't really need further help. If his opponents aren't all over this, then something really is wrong in British politics and we are all being taken for a ride.

So, you have no opinion on the violence-inciting, racist xenophobe...despite clicking on a thread about it. AND commenting on it (presumably to try to change the subject for some reason?)

But you are more concerned with the fact that someone you don't like might also have negative thoughts on the racist xenophobe, and that's your worry.

Why are you blaming Starmer for this when Rishi Sunak campaigned for this mans release too?
Over several interventions, Sunak wrote to the Egyptians, raised the matter personally (face to face) with the Egyptian Government, why didn't Sunak know about these SM posts???

This man is being released, at least in part, due to the previous Govts attempts at getting him released.

Why should the PM, any PM inc Sunak, be aware of anti semitic tweets made many years ago?

Like it or not, the UK Govt has a duty to ALL British citizens imprisoned unfairly abroad, regardless of their views or how they got UK citizenship oh & thats before we get to which PM allowed him to get UK citizenship in 2022.....

Your thread and the Tories sham outrage smack of political opportunism, as you weren't bothered about the Tories supporting him in 2022, in 2023 and in 2024.

Why do we even have treason laws? Has there been a clearer case of a government aiding the country's enemies?

""Filthy".

That kind of insult is commonly used by people who hate all Arabs.

Talk about a thread that's going nowhere .."

Er no @Alltheunreadbooks "filthy racist" is a perfectly normal phrase to use. You don't get to come on a thread about a filthy racist xenophobe and then police the language of the people who're the target of that racism and xenophobia ...especially not with the intention of twisting their words to imply that THEY are indeed the racists, so now we must all stop talking about it.

Any government should be made aware of previous hostile tweets by security services. Question is, what is important about this man? Activist for what? He's certainly no activist for peace.

Absolutely, which Govt gave him UK citizenship? long after his vile views were known.

Ignore it or be delighted and make it a priority as said by Starmer. Bizarre.

In the letter, which was posted by his family on social media, Sunak wrote that the case remained a priority for the British government and had been raised with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi several times.

“I will continue to stress to President Sisi the importance that we attach to the swift resolution of Alaa’s case and an end to his unacceptable treatment,” Sunak wrote.
“The UK’s attendance at COP27 is another opportunity to raise your brother’s case with the Egyptian leadership.”

The UK also gave him citizenship in 2022

Bizarre indeed.....

Activist? Quite a few activists have gone onto destroy people's lives by taking away their loved ones.

Exactly, why was this man ever given UK citizenship? it was not automatic.

Bizarre indeed, as you said.

I didn’t even know about him before I read about his case in the Telegraph yesterday, googled him and found others sources talking about it too.

For the record, I do blame Rishi Sunak just as much too, now I know that he also campaigned for this man’s release. However, Starmer is our current prime minister and that is why he will take the heat for so publicly & enthusiastically welcoming this man into the UK.

At the very least Starmer’s post on X was an error of judgment. It seems hard to believe that none of the people working behind the scenes on this case ever came across the SM posts - yet the Telegraph managed to uncover them.

It’s not political opportunism to hold our PM and most senior government ministers to high standards. I would have criticised Sunak just the same if this story had broken while he was PM. They need better advisors if they really were unaware of his racist messages.

Why was this man a 'top priority' for KS? Why did KS's annoucement about him come during Parliamentary recess? It all seems very odd.

Very odd indeed and I definitely think there are questions that need answering.

Both governments should be held to account for actively working against the country as far as I'm concerned.

I'm really not bothered about turning this into some strange 'but, what about' stance. The seriousness of the incompetence has grown to a point that it now looks like deliberate treason, acting against the country's best interests, and aiding the country's enemies.

In this day and age 'Oh, we never actually bothered to look at his social media before publicly backing him' does not ring true at all.

I think Starmer wants Reform to win the next election. Because that Tweet is absolutely indefensible.

My son got a new job recently at a local council and even for that job that was not particularly high level, was told his social media would be looked into before a job offer. Yet somehow the social media accounts are NOT looked into re activists in prison that successive UK governments have campaigned to release … strange.