Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for the deportation of British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah following the emergence of historic social media posts containing antisemitic and racist content, declaring she does not want people who hate Britain coming to the country.
Abd El Fattah, 44, arrived in Britain on December 27 after obtaining British citizenship in 2021 through his mother, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying he was delighted by the news. The activist spent nearly twelve years in Egyptian prisons as a prominent opposition figure during President Abdel Fattah al Sisi’s crackdown on dissent.
In the days following his arrival, British newspapers published stories about posts made by Abd El Fattah on the former Twitter platform between 2008 and 2014, seen by Reuters, which endorsed violence against Zionists and police. The posts reportedly included statements expressing hatred for white people, particularly those of English, Dutch or German descent.
On Monday, Abd El Fattah issued an apology stating he understood how shocking and hurtful the posts were, describing them as mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations during regional crises including wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth. He said he particularly regretted posts written as part of online insult battles with total disregard for how they read to other people.
Badenoch told the Daily Mail that the comments Abd El Fattah made about violence against Jews, white people and police were disgusting, abhorrent and anti British. “British citizenship is more than a passport. Our country is our home, not a hotel,” she stated, calling on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to pull out all stops to have him deported.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp branded Abd El Fattah a despicable scumbag on Monday, telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain that if he were the actual home secretary, he would sign an order to revoke his citizenship under the 1971 Immigration Act on grounds he is not conducive to the public good. Philp dismissed the apology as insincere, saying it came only because his vile, hateful remarks had been publicly exposed.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is writing to Mahmood urging deportation, stating in his letter that anyone who possesses racist and anti British views such as those of Abd El Fattah should not be allowed into the UK. He described it as astonishing that neither Labour, Conservative nor other party MPs carried out basic due diligence while campaigning for his release.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the social media history that emerged from Abd El Fattah was of profound concern, describing his previous extremist and violent rhetoric aimed at Zionists and white people as threatening to British Jews and the wider public. The organization stated the cross party campaign for such a person and the warm welcome issued by government demonstrate a broken system with an astonishing lack of due diligence by authorities.
The Jewish Leadership Council expressed appalledness at the effusive welcome Abd El Fattah received from government, noting the Prime Minister recently reiterated his determination to root out antisemitism but has now shared his delight that someone who advocated for killing Zionists arrived in the country.
In 2014, Abd El Fattah’s posts on Twitter cost him a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize when the group backing him withdrew the nomination for the human rights award, saying they discovered a tweet from 2012 in which he called for the murder of Israelis.
Senior Labour MPs reportedly told The Times that Starmer had lost the trust of British Jews and joined Badenoch in calling for citizenship revocation. One minister described it as truly shocking that the country welcomed a racist antisemite with open arms, questioning the lack of judgment. Another Labour MP characterized the decision as looking like a kick in the face following recent antisemitic attacks in Manchester and Australia’s Bondi Beach.
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who had lobbied for Abd El Fattah’s release, expressed regret for signing the letter calling for his freedom. “Had I known of these views, I would not have signed the letter. I urge the police to investigate the nature of these extremist comments,” he posted on social media.
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, former chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said she felt deeply let down and frankly betrayed after learning of the grotesque tweets following her support for his cause. She called the remarks wholly incompatible with British values while maintaining it was wholly improper for British citizens to be detained without due process by foreign states.
Abd El Fattah defended some posts as having been misunderstood or twisted out of meaning. He stated a tweet being shared to allege homophobia was actually ridiculing homophobia, noting he paid a steep price for his public support for LGBTQ rights in Egypt. He claimed another tweet wrongly interpreted as Holocaust denial was clearly mocking Holocaust denial.
The activist emphasized he takes accusations of antisemitism very seriously and has always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most sinister and dangerous of forces. He said it had been painful to see some people who supported calls for his release now feel regret, but insisted they did the right thing in standing up for human rights.
Abd El Fattah was granted British citizenship in 2021 on the basis that his mother, Laila Soueif, was born in the UK while her mother was studying as a student. Badenoch acknowledged it was a mistake to give him citizenship but said the decision was rubber stamped by officials without escalating the case to the then home secretary, Priti Patel.
Government sources suggested the Prime Minister was not aware of Abd El Fattah’s social media posts during the years in which he pressed for his release. A Number 10 source rejected the idea that welcoming his return was an endorsement of his political views.
The Foreign Office issued a statement Sunday condemning Abd El Fattah’s historic tweets as abhorrent while noting it has been a longstanding priority under successive governments to work for his release from detention and see him reunited with his family in the UK.
Abd El Fattah was detained in Egypt in September 2019 and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news after sharing a social media post about a prisoner’s death. His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by United Nations investigators, and he was pardoned by Egyptian President Sisi in September 2025 after years of lobbying by both Conservative and Labour governments.
