A ‘no UK citizen left behind’ policy is all very well but the case of one Egyptian poses awkward questions for two UK governments | Conservative Home

I’d always wanted to visit Egypt, and when I did, I have to say I wished I hadn’t.

My desire to visit had of course been based on a historical tourism concept not a sweaty diplomatic jamboree that took place in the middle of a baking desert in an under completed venue for an event that to my mind wasn’t really achieving what it was supposed to.

It was in my preparations as advisor to the then Foreign Secretary for his attendance at  COP27 – to be hosted in Sharm-El-Sheik in November 2022 – that we discussed what diplomatic business would be done on the fringes, since like UN gatherings, almost every country would be there.

This was the first time I really became aware of Alaa Abd el-Fattah as an individual.

For the moment let’s leave the string of vile tweets he seems to have sent from Egypt in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring and Egypt’s violent transition from the dictatorship-in-all-but-name of Hosni Mubarak to an Islamist ‘democracy’ under the Muslim Brotherhood. Frying pan and fire, as it turned out.

I will return to those tweets.

In 2020 an international campaign had built to pressure Egypt’s current military backed President – Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who’d removed ‘democracy’ and got rid of the Muslim Brothehood in 2014, out the fire and back to the pan – to release many of those that had campaigned against his government since and been jailed for doing do.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah was one of the most prominent and celebrated. His mother was born in the UK while her mother studied here, but he had lived, worked, campaigned – and been jailed – in Egypt.

He was a leading critic of the human rights abuses he insists were rife within Sisi’s government. Many countries saw him as a freedom and democracy campaigner and partly due to the pressure his mother and family exerted, the UK government was part of that campaign, as were many MPs, including former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

I don’t know the thinking behind granting him UK citizenship in 2021, as I did not enter government service until a year later, but my assumption, because it’s been tried before, was that by making him a dual national the Johnson government felt perhaps more leverage could be brought to bear on Egypt as part of that wider campaign.

This has potentially become one mistake for two UK Governments.

First diplomatically. In the run up to COP27 a number of European Countries wanted to bring the campaign to a head telling the Egyptians that as hosts of a global meeting, it was awkward for their credibility on the international stage to also be routinely locking up for years those who said things their Government didn’t like.

We were due to meet the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry whilst in Sharm El-Sheik and both he and the British Government knew that Alaa Abd el-Fattah would be a small part of any discussions. I won’t divulge the full meeting but it boiled down to Shoukry and the Sisi government not acceptting el-Fattah’s dual citizenship and considering him a fully Egyptian problem. No deal, no release. We even struggled with consular access.

Egypt got to host COP27, and quite frankly were seemingly unbothered by their record on political prisoners hindering their playing the big host.

Despite the fact el-Fattah’s fate was raised by diplomats a number of times after, and campaigners still urged the UK to do more, as far as I’m aware this was the only time he came to the direct attention of my boss for discussion with Egypt. Cleverly met with el-Fattah’s sister a strong campaigner for his release days after we returned and he sent a tweet about it.

That, essentially, was that. I do not remember his case being raised with my boss again but a letter was delivered to FCDO by campaigners on the tenth anniversary of el-Fattah’s detention. The Egyptians did not change their mind.

With Ukraine, China, Sudan descending into civil war again, and a year afterwards the terrorist attacks of 7^th October by Hamas igniting a two year war in Gaza, his case could not – objectively – have been said to be a top priority, however ‘tirelessly’ diplomats worked with the Egyptians on it.

So now we fast forward to this weekend and that ‘delighted’ personal welcome the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Justice Secretary and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, extended on Twitter/X as el-Fattah came into the UK.

What was probably envisaged as a PR win has descended into massive hindsight backlash.

Starmer has promised to do ‘everything’ to protect British Jews from a wave of antisemitism that has already proved lethal on UK soil, and would have shocked the entire world had two Islamist would-be terrorists not been caught, tried and jailed for planning a mass killing spree, such as Australia has recently witnessed.

Why does this matter?

It seems Alaa Abd el-Fattah has had, and may still have, some appalling, violent, racist, offensive, antisemitic, and murderous views. In 2011 as I mentioned, at the height of the ‘Arab Spring’ he appears to have tweeted the sort of messages that would comfortably clear the bar for arrest, charge and in a case of epic irony,  probable imprisonment for incitement, here in the UK.

The tweets have become more relevant and problematic because a year after the international campaign to release him, a bloody and highly divisive conflict in the middle east – where Egyptian input was vital to UK diplomatic efforts to evacuate UK Nationals – erupted in Gaza after the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct 7^th 2023.

The UK has – notably from the 8^th of October 2023 – seen voluble and in some cases highly aggressive protests by pro-Palestinian campaigners and individuals and a demonstrable – and in the case of Manchester, lethal – increase in openly expressed antisemitism.

How the UK handles the challenge and threat of Islamist ideology predates the Arab Spring, but El-Fattah’s supposed back catalogue of aggressive tweets inciting, even revelling in, violence against ‘whites’, ‘Zionists’, and ‘cops’ have all made Starmer’s welcome of him to the UK – and insistence his case has been ‘a top priority of my government since it came to office’ –  backfire in only the way Starmer’s operation knows how. The tweet has had thousands of responses and in what’s called ‘ratioing’ been replied to six times more than it has been liked.

The shadow justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has been quick to ask the Prime Minister in an official letter why he would welcome a man with such views, and why we should import such a risk at such a time.

The egregious Zia Yusuf is keen for Reform to pin all the blame – with minimal context – on Labour and the Tories. Plus ca change. I have no idea how he’d handle the complexities and trade-offs of Government were he let loose within it, but I’d seriously fear for his stress levels.

However, both have a point, and it boils down to three questions for el-Fattah himself, the Conservatives and Labour, to answer.

First, as per my conjecture, did we simply offer the man citizenship as leverage in part of an international campaign to free Egyptian political prisoners or did we want him to come here all along? I can’t accurately answer that but the Tories should somehow, as it’s one of those issues the party might need to hold its hands up and say; ‘in hindsight we got this wrong‘.

Second, if Starmer is genuinely delighted to welcome this top priority (why? Given everything else he should be tackling) to the UK, does Alaa Abd el-Fattah still hold such views as he was seemingly delighted to spread in 2011, and if so, what consequences should he face?

As many an online commentator has mentioned; a tin-eared two tier Kier seems to warmly welcome a man with slim connections to citizenship and a history of tweets that go way beyond what’s legal in the UK, but presides over a country that stopped a comedian at an airport with armed police for an online ‘joke’ about trans people.

In Whitehall and the FCDO, officials might want to consider whether long standing objectives and foreign relations should more readily adapting to changing domestic circumstances. Does righting human rights wrongs, collide with the rights of existing citizens and their concerns? Shouldn’t the first duty of foreign policy be to serve British interests over a duty to foster better relations.

In the minds of the communications geniuses in Number 10 it has to be a fair assumption they did not imagine the visceral backlash the PM’s personal tweet and endorsement of el-Fattah has provoked – the latest in a long line of “read the room, mate” PR cock ups. They should acknowledge the backlash, and so far, haven’t.

In CCHQ it’d be wise to prep some form of answer as to why el-Fattah was given citizenship in the first place. Apologising for past mistakes is still, and should be, part of Conservative renewal.

And finally Alaa Abd el-Fattah might want to consider publicly denouncing those 2011 tweets. In any event someone soon is going to ask him, to his face if he still stands by them, unless he decides to imprison himself in a house in Brighton, rather than being imprisoned in a cell in Cairo.