🔗 Share this article

Efforts to secure the release of the British-Egyptian activist regularly distracted the Starmer administration from concentrating on bread-and-butter domestic political issues, according to a former member of the PM's inner circle of former advisers.

Frustration Became a Source of Humour

Paul Ovenden, who stepped down last year as the PM's chief of strategy, claimed the case of the British political prisoner became a “running joke” among those in Whitehall exasperated with the slow pace of change.

“We would be having long meetings on the key goals of the government, and frequently they would be railroaded via AOB into discussions of this individual,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He added, “Most of us on the political team of government were largely unaware of it – not closely following it – because it didn’t impact us daily. It actually became a bit of a kind of a running joke within government that people would always find a way to return to this topic.”

A Sign of Wider Struggles

Ovenden said the amount of time dedicated to freeing Abd el-Fattah was symptomatic of a government that has struggled to stay focused on voters’ core priorities in the face of pressure from “influential” campaign organisations and arms-length bodies.

These remarks came in his initial public statement since he resigned in September, after it was revealed he sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott previously.

Echoes of PM's Own Concerns

But, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Downing Street, even the prime minister, who lamented last month about excessive red tape slowing government action.

Ovenden said Abd el-Fattah’s case was one of several areas where the government was sidetracked from its primary goals. He pointed to rows over compensation for historical injustices and prohibiting cigarettes in outdoor hospitality areas as other instances.

“When the public is getting increasingly impatient, ever more disillusioned with a lack of progress, more and more fed up with side issues, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be using valuable time on what I consider diversions,” he said.

Advocating for a Radical Shift

In a separate piece, he urges the government to scale back environmental regulations, reduce benefits expenditure and even scrap the triple-lock on pensions.

“It is not necessary to keep picking the pockets of the wealth-generating sectors of our economy in order to pay for inflation-busting pension increases for millionaires or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he argues. “There is no need to strangle entrepreneurs from the outset with regulatory burdens.”

As one of a small group of advisers around the prime minister since his days in the opposition benches, his exit was widely regarded as a setback to Starmer, while his critique of Whitehall priorities resonates in certain quarters.