Labour’s Shabana Mahmood told she has power to deport Alaa Abd El-Fattah | Politics | News
Labor has the authority to deport Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah, legal experts say. The Conservatives and the Reform Party are calling for the UK citizenship of a democracy activist who arrived in the UK last month after years of detention in Egypt to be revoked after historic tweets emerged.
However, it appears that there are no plans for this and it is claimed that the legal threshold for this is not met. But former Conservative Party attorney general Michael Ellis said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had the power to revoke citizenship for Mr Abd El-Fattah, which was reportedly granted through his UK-born mother in 2021, under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981.
The law allows removal of citizenship for “unacceptable behavior such as glorification of terrorism.”
Mr Ellis told The Telegraph: “Parliament is the supreme body and Parliament passed the 1981 Act giving powers to the Home Office in such cases.
“He should use those powers… The fact that the government hasn’t done this shows that they’ve either already given up or they don’t want to do it because they don’t want to take away this man’s citizenship.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the Conservatives would present an urgent question to Ms Mahmood when Parliament returns on Monday, asking why she did not use her powers against Mr Abdel Fattah.
He said: “The Minister of Home Affairs has the power to revoke Al-Fattah’s citizenship, a power the Supreme Court confirmed in the Shamima Begum case.
“He must do this immediately and the Conservatives will demand that he do so when Parliament returns.”
The activist was revealed to be at the center of the controversy after now-deleted posts emerged on X in which he branded Britons “dogs and monkeys”, called for the killing of Zionists and violence against the police, and expressed hatred for white people.
Mr Abd El-Fattah has since apologized, claiming some of the posts were “completely distorted from their meaning” while others were “expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations at a time of regional crises (wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza) and increased police brutality against Egyptian youth.”
Downing Street described Mr Abd El-Fattah’s apology as “pretty disgusting”, while the Prime Minister’s official spokesman added: “This is absolutely the right thing to do.”
Mr Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned in Egypt on charges of spreading fake news, in a process branded by UN investigators as a violation of international law.
After years of lobbying by Conservative and Labor governments, he was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in September and flew to the UK the next day after the travel ban was lifted.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been criticized for his public welcome after Twitter posts dating back to 2010 emerged.
