Distractions over Abd el-Fattah were running joke, says ex-Starmer adviser

Paul Ovenden argues time spent discussing political prisoner was symptom of government struggling to focus

Efforts to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from focusing on bread-and-butter domestic political issues, according to one of the prime minister’s closest former advisers.

Paul Ovenden, who stood down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, said the case of the British political prisoner became a “running joke” among those in government frustrated by the slow pace of change.