Alaa Abd el-Fattah arrived in the UK on Friday 26 December 2025 after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban. In the early hours of Monday 29 December he apologised for historic social media posts endorsing violence. Hours later, the Foreign Secretary ordered a review into why ministers had not been briefed on those posts before welcoming his return.
A BBC News report, relayed by AOL News, said Abd el-Fattah’s Facebook account ‘liked’ a post describing criticism of him as a ‘relentless smear campaign’ involving ‘the richest man in the world’ and ‘Zionist organisations’. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick highlighted a second ‘like’ on a post alleging a Zionist campaign; BBC News said the original post appears to have been deleted.
Downing Street condemned the historic posts as ‘abhorrent’ and said the prime minister had been unaware of them when he welcomed Abd el-Fattah’s arrival. No 10 added that while it does not comment on individual citizenship cases, officials do not believe the legal tests for deprivation are met. Ministers also apologised for the distress caused to Jewish communities.
In a letter to the Foreign Affairs Committee chair Dame Emily Thornberry, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said successive prime ministers and current and former ministers had not been briefed on the tweets, calling this an ‘unacceptable failure’ of due diligence. The review will examine how high‑profile consular cases are briefed across departments; Cooper has served as Foreign Secretary since 5 September 2025.
Counter‑terrorism police are reviewing the historic posts following public referrals, according to Reuters. That assessment concerns online content from more than a decade ago and sits alongside the separate ministerial review of information handling.
Opposition figures in the Conservatives and Reform UK have urged ministers to strip Abd el-Fattah of his British citizenship and deport him. Government sources have indicated there are no current plans to do so and that the law offers limited scope absent national security concerns or fraud.
Under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981, the Home Secretary may deprive a person of British citizenship if satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good, but not if it would make the person stateless. A narrow exception allows deprivation of naturalised citizens who have acted in a way ‘seriously prejudicial to the vital interests’ of the UK, where the person can acquire another nationality.
Home Office guidance and House of Commons Library analysis show that deprivation on ‘public good’ grounds is generally reserved for national security and counter‑terrorism, and more rarely serious organised crime. It is not ordinarily used in response to speech alone.
Any deprivation order carries a right of appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which can consider sensitive material. Supreme Court rulings, including Begum [2021] UKSC 7 and the 2025 U3 judgment, confirm the weight given to ministerial national security assessments while allowing SIAC to consider a wide evidential record.
Abd el-Fattah, a prominent figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was convicted in 2021 of spreading false news after sharing a Facebook post about a prisoner’s death, a process condemned by rights groups. He obtained British citizenship in 2021 through his London‑born mother.
His social media activity has drawn scrutiny before. In 2014, a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize was withdrawn after a 2012 tweet surfaced advocating the killing of Israelis.
The Foreign Office review is under way. Any move to revisit Abd el-Fattah’s citizenship would require a formal decision by the Home Secretary and would likely trigger lengthy litigation. For now, No 10 has emphasised lessons for due diligence rather than deprivation action.