Anger at Britain’s Keir Starmer, shows no sign of abating as opponents say the prime minister needs to step down whether or not he knew about the violent content in social media posts posted by an Egyptian-British activist championed by Mr. Starmer. 

The rampant criticism of Starmer following his December 26 message welcoming home Alaa Abd al-Fatteh, who was pardoned by Egypt’s president on the request of Mr. Starmer and others, has ignited a firestorm over citizenship laws and selective prosecution of hate speech.

The issue is crystallizing as a potential pressure point against Mr. Starmer, who has been lambasted for ignoring violent language Mr. Fatteh wrote in his social media posts while also pursuing England’s Online Safety Act.  The prime minister has said he was unaware of the toxic posts Mr. Fatteh posted, which should squarely fall under the jurisdiction of the new law. 

However, Mr. Starmer spoke in Parliament in 2022 about how Mr. Fatteh was “jailed for the crime of posting on social media.” Cairo also confirmed that Mr. Fatteh’s comments were known to Mr. Starmer. 

“The Egyptian government has said @Keir_Starmer knew about the vile messages put out by Fatteh. So Starmer lied to bring into this country someone who hates us and wishes us harm. Starmer must go,” wrote the leader of the AdvanceUK party, Ben Habib.

“It may not be the most harmful decision @Keir_Starmer had made, but it feels like the most politically damaging, like a point of no return. I doubt he can recover now,” added a Conservative member of the House of Lords, Daniel Hannan.

In a long post on Sunday evening, Mr. Fatteh claimed that tweets he posted before his arrests and now being used to call for revocation of his citizenship were the folly of a youthful 31-year-old man. 

While claiming that some of the posts were “twisted out of their meaning,” Mr. Fatteh apologized for “shocking and hurtful” posts that were “mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations” during the Arab Spring and his susceptibility to being sucked into “antagonistic online cultures.” 

He added that he has spent his life working on the “consistent promotion of equality, justice and secular democracy,” including publicly rejecting anti-Jewish speech in Egypt and defending LGBTQ rights. He claimed he was imprisoned for defending the rights of minorities like Egyptian Christians. 

“I take accusations of antisemitism very seriously. I have always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most sinister and dangerous of forces,” he wrote, 

Conservative lawmakers and others who have watched the explosion of antisemitism and the double standard around the application of hate speech laws said they are not impressed.

“I am not interested in his ‘apology.’ People with his views should not be welcome in our country,” said the shadow Home Secretary,  Chris Philp.

The Cairo-born Mr. Fatteh, whose mother was born in England, qualified for citizenship under Tory leadership while he was in prison in 2021. At the time, British law required a “good character” test, though that requirement was later dropped. 

A retired British Army officer and counterterrorism analyst, Col. Richard Kemp, said every politician who has pressed for Mr. Fatteh’s citizenship or his release from Egypt would have known about Mr. Fatteh’s history.  

“Hundreds if not thousands of civil service & ministerial hours over several years were devoted to giving him citizenship & campaigning diplomatically for his release/’repatriation’. MI5 & the Met Police would have been involved & would have reported all intelligence on him to ministers/senior civil servants as part of the process,” he wrote.

“How is it credible that his publicly stated threats of extreme violence would not have been known by the ministers who eagerly pressed for El Fattah’s release, granted him citizenship, brought him here and now jubilantly celebrate his arrival?” asked Mr. Kemp.

The debate has also raised doubts about whether British citizenship is irredeemable once it’s granted. 

“The Home Secretary should look at all possible options for Alaa Abd El-Fattah, including whether his citizenship can be revoked and he can be removed from Britain,” wrote the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch.  “British citizenship is more than a passport. It means subscribing to our values. Britain is our home not a hotel.”

British citizen, Adam Ma’anit, whose cousin, Tsachi Idan, was murdered in captivity after his abduction by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, added that other lawmakers like his parliamentarian, Green Party member Sian Perry, who stood with Mr. Fatteh, and his mother, Laila Soueif, also need to face a reckoning. 
“My MP @sianberry never once contacted my family when Tsachi’s remains were finally returned earlier this year. No condolence. No acknowledgement. Just silence. Yet she is content to stand smiling beside the mother of an extremist who now shares posts denying the torture and mistreatment of the hostages,” wrote Mr. Ma’anit.