Controversy Surrounds British-Egyptian Activist As Calls for Deportation Intensify

Mon Dec 29 2025 16:22:20 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Alaa Abd El Fattah, a British-Egyptian democracy activist, faces demands for deportation following the resurfacing of inflammatory tweets. His apologies and past support for human rights are under scrutiny as political leaders react.

Alaa Abd El Fattah, recently released from an Egyptian prison, has issued apologies for past tweets that have sparked political backlash in the UK. Conservative and Reform UK leaders are calling for his citizenship to be revoked due to accusations of promoting violence against certain groups. Despite his prior activism for democracy and human rights, the resurfacing of his tweets has turned public attention and raised questions about his place in Britain. The Foreign Office condemned his tweets as 'abhorrent,' while critics urge due diligence regarding his citizenship.

British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd El Fattah has apologised for several of his old tweets that have resurfaced, as calls grow for him to be deported from the UK days after he arrived following his release from an Egyptian jail.

Tory and Reform UK leaders say the home secretary should consider whether Abd El Fattah, a dual national, can be removed after social media messages showed him calling for Zionists and police to be killed.

The Times reports some senior Labour MPs are also calling for his citizenship to be removed.

After reviewing the historic posts, Abd El Fattah said: I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.

He added: I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship.

Abd El Fattah said he took allegations of antisemitism very seriously while arguing some of the posts had been completely twisted out of their meaning.

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for saying he was delighted by Abd El Fattah's arrival in the UK on Friday, three months after he was freed from prison in Egypt, but it is understood he was unaware of the historical messages.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage both said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood should look at whether Abd El Fattah's citizenship could be revoked to enable his swift removal from the UK.

Farage said in a letter to Mahmood: It should go without saying that anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr el-Fattah should not be allowed into the UK.

The Foreign Office said it had been a long-standing priority under successive governments to work for Abd El Fattah's release and see him reunited with his family in the UK, but condemned his posts as abhorrent.

The 44-year-old was convicted in 2021 of spreading fake news in Egypt for sharing a Facebook post about torture in the country following a trial that human rights groups said was grossly unfair.

He was granted citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother - when the Conservatives were in power and Dame Priti Patel was home secretary.

In one resurfaced tweet, from 2012, Abd El Fattah appears to say: I am a racist, I don't like white people. In another, he says he considers killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic; we need to kill more of them.

He is also accused of saying police do not have rights and we should kill them all.

There is no excuse for that kind of language, Philp said. People who express that kind of hatred, that kind of anti-white racism, that kind of extremism who seek to incite violence, have no place in the United Kingdom.

The UK has responsibilities under international law to avoid leaving people stateless and British citizenship can only be stripped from someone eligible to apply for citizenship in another country.