Diversions Regarding Alaa Abd el-Fattah Became a Running Joke, Says Ex-Starmer Adviser
Efforts to free of Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from focusing on bread-and-butter domestic political issues, as stated by one of the prime minister’s closest ex-aides.
Frustration Became a Source of Humour
Paul Ovenden, who stood down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, said the case of the British political prisoner evolved into a “running joke” among those in government exasperated with the lack of progress of change.
“We would be having long meetings on the priorities 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 side of government were largely unaware of it – not closely following it – because it didn’t impact us daily. 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 conversation.”
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 quasi-independent agencies.
These remarks 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.
Echoes of PM's Own Concerns
However, Ovenden’s political analysis is shared by many in Number 10, even the prime minister, who lamented last month about bureaucratic hurdles delaying government action.
Ovenden stated Abd el-Fattah’s case was one of several areas where the government became distracted from its primary goals. He cited rows over reparations to former colonies and prohibiting cigarettes in pub gardens as other instances.
“At a time when the public is getting more and more frustrated, more and more fed up with inaction, increasingly tired with side issues, in my opinion, we simply can’t afford to be using valuable time on what I consider diversions,” he said.
Calls for Policy Overhaul
In a separate piece, he calls on the government to roll back green rules, reduce benefits expenditure and even end the guaranteed pension increase mechanism.
“We don’t have to keep taking money of the wealth-generating sectors of our economy in order to fund above-inflation pension rises for millionaires or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he writes. “We don’t have to strangle small businesses at birth with regulatory burdens.”
Having been part of a small group of advisers close to the prime minister since his days in the opposition benches, his exit was widely regarded as a blow to Starmer, even as his critique of Whitehall priorities finds sympathy in certain quarters.
