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Attempts to free of Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from concentrating on bread-and-butter home affairs, according to one of the PM's inner circle of former advisers.

Frustration Became a Source of Humour

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

“We would be having long meetings on the priorities of the government, and frequently they would be railroaded via any other business into conversations of this individual,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He continued, “Most of us on the political team of government were largely unaware of it – weren’t that tuned into 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 topic.”

A Sign of Wider Struggles

Ovenden said the amount of time spent on freeing Abd el-Fattah was symptomatic of a government that has struggled to stay focused on voters’ core priorities in the face of pressure from “well-connected” activist groups and arms-length bodies.

Ovenden’s comments came in his initial public statement since he stepped down in September, following revelations he sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott previously.

Echoes of PM's Own Concerns

However, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Downing Street, even the prime minister, who lamented last month about bureaucratic hurdles slowing government action.

Ovenden said Abd el-Fattah’s case was one of several 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 further examples.

“When the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with a lack of progress, more and more fed up with distraction, in my opinion, we simply can’t afford to be using valuable time on what I consider diversions,” he said.

Advocating for a Radical Shift

In a separate piece, he urges the government to roll back environmental regulations, cut benefits expenditure and even end the guaranteed pension increase mechanism.

“We don’t have to keep taking money of the productive parts of our economy in order to pay for above-inflation pension rises for millionaires or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he writes. “There is no need to stifle entrepreneurs from the outset with excessive regulation.”

As one of a handful of advisers around the prime minister since his days in opposition, his exit was widely regarded as a blow to Starmer, even as his critique of Whitehall priorities finds sympathy in certain quarters.