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Efforts to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from concentrating on core home affairs, according to a former member of the prime minister’s closest ex-aides.

A 'Running Joke' Within Government

Paul Ovenden, who stepped down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, claimed the case of the British political prisoner evolved into a “running joke” among those in Whitehall exasperated with the lack of progress of change.

“We'd hold long meetings on the key goals of the government, and often they would be derailed 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 affect us on a day-to-day basis. It actually became a bit of a kind 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 spent on the activist's case was indicative of a government that has struggled to remain concentrated on voters’ core priorities in the face of pressure from “influential” activist groups and arms-length bodies.

These remarks came in his initial public statement since he stepped down in September, following revelations he had sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott previously.

Shared Frustrations in Downing Street

But, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Number 10, including the prime minister, who lamented last month about excessive red tape delaying government action.

Ovenden stated Abd el-Fattah’s case was among a number of areas where the government became distracted from its main objectives. He pointed to controversies over reparations to former colonies and prohibiting cigarettes in outdoor hospitality areas as other instances.

“When the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with a lack of progress, increasingly tired with distraction, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be spending their time on what I consider distractions,” he said.

Calls for Policy Overhaul

In a separate piece, he urges the government to scale back environmental regulations, reduce benefits expenditure and even end the triple-lock on pensions.

“We don’t have to keep taking money of the wealth-generating sectors of our economy in order to fund inflation-busting pension increases for the wealthy or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he argues. “There is no need to stifle entrepreneurs at birth with regulatory burdens.”

As one of a small group of advisers close to the prime minister since his days in the opposition benches, his exit was seen by many as a blow to Starmer, while his critique of governmental focus resonates in certain quarters.