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Efforts to free of Alaa Abd el-Fattah regularly distracted Keir Starmer’s government from focusing on core domestic political issues, according to one of the PM's inner circle of former advisers.

Frustration Became a Source of Humour

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 exasperated with the lack of progress of change.

“We would be having long meetings 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 – not closely following it – because it didn't affect us daily. It truly turned into a sort 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 dedicated to freeing Abd el-Fattah was symptomatic 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 resigned in September, following revelations he had sent offensive texts about the Labour MP Diane Abbott previously.

Echoes of PM's Own Concerns

But, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Number 10, including the prime minister, who lamented last month about bureaucratic hurdles slowing government action.

Ovenden stated Abd el-Fattah’s case was among a number of areas where the government was sidetracked from its primary goals. He cited rows over compensation for historical injustices and prohibiting cigarettes in pub gardens as further examples.

“At a time when the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with a lack of progress, more and more fed up with side issues, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be using valuable time on what I consider diversions,” he said.

Advocating for a Radical Shift

In a further article, he urges the government to scale back environmental regulations, reduce welfare spending and even scrap the triple-lock on pensions.

“We don’t have to keep taking money of the productive parts of our economy in order to fund inflation-busting pension increases for the wealthy or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he writes. “We don’t have to strangle entrepreneurs at birth with excessive regulation.”

Having been part of a handful of advisers close to the prime minister since his days in the opposition benches, his departure was seen by many as a setback to Starmer, while his analysis of governmental focus finds sympathy in certain quarters.