Broadcaster hits out at Tories and Labour as he warns Britain is ‘stuck’ with the activist

Broadcaster Andrew Neil (Image: Times Radio)

Andrew Neil warned that Britain “will not be able to get rid” of Alaa Abd El-Fattah amid calls for his deportation. The activist, who was recently released after years of detention in Egypt, is at the centre of a row after historic social media posts emerged following his arrival in Britain last week.

The tweets appear to show Mr Abd El-Fattah expressing hatred of white people and calling for Zionists to be killed and violence against the police. Reform UK and the Conservatives have called for his UK citizenship, which he was awarded in 2021 under the previous Tory government, to be stripped.

But Mr Neil insisted that Britain is “stuck with him” as he hit out at the Tories and Labour.

Speaking on Times Radio, the broadcaster said: “Who’s going to take him now? You seriously think the Egyptians are going to take him back? They’re delighted to get rid of him.

“Where else are you going to send him to? To France? I don’t think they’re going to want him.

“He’s got British citizenship, rightly or wrongly. In my view wrongly, it was performative virtue signalling by the Tories picked up by Labour and made even worse.

“We are lumbered with him, we’re stuck with him, through the incompetence of Labour and Conservative administrations we’ve allowed someone who hates Britain onto our shores, and we will not be able to get rid of him.”

Mr Neil also insisted Mr Abd El-Fattah only said sorry “because he’s been rumbled”.

He said: “Of course he’s apologising now, he’s apologising now because he’s been rumbled, he’s apologising now because all these things have come out in public.

“He’s saying it’s out of context, how is let’s burn 10 Downing Street down, let’s kill British police, in what possible context could statements like that be justified?”

The dissident has apologised for some of his “shocking and hurtful” remarks, which he described as “expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations”, but insisted others were “twisted out of meaning”.

It comes as Downing Street defended Mr Abd El-Fattah’s entry into the UK.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We welcome the return of a British citizen unfairly detained abroad, as we would in all cases and as we have done in the past.”

He continued: “That is central to Britain’s commitment to religious and political freedom.

“That said, it doesn’t change the fact that we have condemned the nature of these historic tweets, and we consider them to be abhorrent, and we’ve been very clear about that.”

Asked whether the Government was considering steps to remove Mr Abd El-Fattah’s citizenship, No 10 said: “Clearly, we don’t get into individual citizenship cases.”