Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for saying he was “delighted” by Mr Abd El Fattah’s arrival in the UK on Friday, three months after the democracy activist was freed from prison in Egypt.
On Monday, Sir Keir said the resurfaced tweets were “absolutely abhorrent” and said the government was “taking steps to review the information failures in this case”.
“With the rise of antisemitism, and recent horrific attacks, I know this has added to the distress of many in the Jewish community in the UK,” he added.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who led the criticism of Sir Keir’s welcome for Mr Abd El Fattah, swiftly responded by renewing his call for the activist to be removed from the UK.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Abd El Fattah said he took allegations of antisemitism “very seriously” while arguing some of the posts had been “completely twisted out of their meaning”.
He added: “I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship.”
