🔗 Share this article

Attempts to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from focusing on core home affairs, as stated by a former member of the PM's inner circle of former advisers.

A 'Running Joke' Within Government

Paul Ovenden, who stepped down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, said the case of the imprisoned activist became a “recurring punchline” among those in government exasperated with the lack of progress of change.

“We'd hold long meetings on the key goals of the government, and frequently they would be derailed via any other business into conversations of this gentleman,” he stated on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He added, “Most of us on the political side of government were largely unaware of it – weren’t that tuned into it – because it didn't affect us on a day-to-day basis. It truly turned into a sort of a standing joke within government that people would invariably find a way to bring it back to this topic.”

A Sign of Wider Struggles

Ovenden said the amount of time dedicated to the activist's case was indicative of a government that has found it difficult to stay focused on voters’ core priorities in the face of pressure from “influential” campaign organisations and arms-length bodies.

Ovenden’s comments came in his first public intervention since he resigned in September, after it was revealed he sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott eight years ago.

Shared Frustrations in Downing Street

However, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Number 10, even the prime minister, who complained last month about excessive red tape delaying government action.

Ovenden stated Abd el-Fattah’s case was among a number of areas where the government was sidetracked from its main objectives. He pointed to controversies over reparations to former colonies and banning smoking in pub gardens as other instances.

“At a time when the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with inaction, more and more fed up with distraction, 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 green rules, cut benefits expenditure and even scrap the guaranteed pension increase mechanism.

“It is not necessary to keep picking the pockets of the productive parts of our economy in order to fund above-inflation pension rises for the wealthy or an unsustainable welfare system,” he writes. “We don’t have to strangle entrepreneurs from the outset with regulatory burdens.”

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