Starmer says he was not aware of ‘abhorrent’ comments by Egyptian activist he welcomed

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he was not aware of the “abhorrent” comments made by an Egyptian-British activist when he warmly welcomed him upon his return to the country last month.

Asked about the issue in a lengthy interview with the BBC, Starmer says that X posts by Alaa Abd el-Fattah calling to kill all Zionists and police officers “are abhorrent and I condemn them utterly.”

“As I’ve made clear, I didn’t know about those comments at the time of welcoming El-Fattah to this country,” adds Starmer, arguing that successive British prime ministers had sought Fattah’s freedom from Egyptian detention.

Pressed on why he was unaware of the contentious comments before making his statement welcoming back Fattah, Starmer says, “Your point that somebody in government should have known is one I’ve made myself to the appropriate team, because I do think I should have been made aware and I wasn’t made aware — and that is a failing within the system.”

After Fattah’s history of antisemitic and controversial posts resurfaced, “I wasn’t very pleased about it when I found out, hence we’re taking remedial action.”

According to The Daily Telegraph, the tweets included statements that “I consider killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic, we need to kill more of them,” as well as “There was no genocide against Jews by the Nazis – after all, many Jews are left,” and also a tweet reading: “Dear Zionists, please don’t ever talk to me, I’m a violent person who advocated the killing of all Zionists including civilians, so f*** off.”

The tweets had also previously surfaced in 2014, when he was nominated for the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Fattah’s nomination was later withdrawn due to the controversy.