Attempts to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah frequently diverted the Starmer administration from concentrating on bread-and-butter home affairs, according to one of the PM's inner circle of former advisers.
Paul Ovenden, who stepped down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, claimed the case of the imprisoned activist became a “recurring punchline” among those in government exasperated with the slow pace of change.
“We'd hold extended discussions on the key goals of the government, and often they would be derailed via any other business into discussions of this individual,” 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 impact us daily. It actually became a sort of a standing joke within government that people would invariably find a way to bring it back to this conversation.”
Ovenden argued the amount of time spent on freeing Abd el-Fattah was symptomatic of a government that has found it difficult to remain concentrated 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, following revelations he had sent offensive texts about the Labour MP Diane Abbott eight years ago.
But, Ovenden’s political analysis is echoed by many in Downing Street, including the prime minister, who complained last month about bureaucratic hurdles 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 cited rows over reparations to former colonies and prohibiting cigarettes in pub gardens as other instances.
“When the public is getting more and more frustrated, more and more fed up with inaction, more and more fed up with side issues, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be spending their time on what I consider diversions,” he said.
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 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. “There is no need to strangle small businesses from the outset with regulatory burdens.”
As one of a handful of advisers around the prime minister since his days in opposition, his departure was seen by many as a blow to Starmer, while his analysis of governmental focus finds sympathy in certain quarters.
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