Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of whether the presence in the UK of Alaa Abd el Fattah is conducive to the public good.

We do not routinely comment on individual cases however the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister have made clear that Ministers and officials were previously unaware of the historic posts made by Mr El-Fattah.

Further, all British citizens automatically have a Right of Abode (ROA) in the UK which means they are entitled to live in the UK without any immigration restrictions and do not need to obtain the permission of an immigration officer to enter the UK.

For those who are not deprived of citizenship but may have acted in a criminal manner, we encourage independent law enforcement to use their full suite of powers.

Depriving an individual of British citizenship is one of the most powerful tools in the Home Secretary’s arsenal as it keeps the very worst, high harm offenders out of the UK. Each case is assessed individually on the basis of all available evidence.

This government and successive government before it, have been clear that the exercise of this powerful tool will be used sparingly, and against the highest harm and most dangerous individuals.

This includes those who pose a threat to the UK, and who are involved in serious organised crime. The government does not propose to change the basis on which the power is used. The Government considers that deprivation on ‘conducive grounds’ is an appropriate response to activities such as those involving:

• National security, including espionage and acts of terrorism directed at this country or an allied power;
• Unacceptable behaviour of the kind mentioned in the then Home Secretary’s statement of 24 August 2005 (‘glorification’ of terrorism etc);
• War crimes; and
• Serious organised crime.