“CRUEL and racist” Tory and Reform UK calls to strip human rights activist Alaa Abd Fattah’s British citizenship due to 15-year-old social media posts are an “authoritarian overreach of the worst kind,” campaigners said today.

Human rights organisations slammed the calls, as independent and Labour MPs warned against a “very dangerous precedent.”

Mr Fattah today apologised unreservedly for calling for violence against zionists and the police in 2010, saying that he understood “how shocking and hurtful” his previous tweets were.

The democracy campaigner and British-Egyptian dual national was recently released after years of detention in Egypt after being granted British citizenship in December 2021.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch today maintained her demand for him to be deported and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed he has reported Mr Fattah to the counter-terrorism police.

This sparked warnings by human rights organisation Reprieve that Britain has become a world leader in the practice of citizenship deprivation. 

Its deputy executive director Dan Dolan said: “Suggesting that someone should be stripped of citizenship for something they posted on social media, however bad, is authoritarian overreach of the worst kind and a deeply dangerous step.

“In a country governed by the rule of law, politicians should not have the power to strip the legal rights of whomever they choose. 

“That this alarming idea is even being suggested shows how extreme the UK’s citizenship-stripping powers are.

“The UK’s citizenship deprivation regime is inherently racist: it discriminates against British citizens with foreign heritage, leaving 3 out of 5 people of colour at risk of being stripped.”

Britain has removed citizenship at 10 times the rate of France over the past 14 years, with Reprieve saying these powers have been almost exclusively used against British Muslims.

Labour MP John McDonnell, who led the campaign for Mr Fattah’s release from prison in Egypt in parliament, said that he was “fearful that this case will be used as the foot in the door of more extensively withdrawing citizenship from people. 

“It’s what many on the right have been wanting for quite a while and will be in line with their overall assault on civil liberties.”

He added that Mr Fattah had been a “furious young man, angry at the brutality of what he saw around him, especially [motivated by] the plight of the Palestinians.

“His appalling social media interventions were the product of that anger and had been exposed over a decade ago. But that’s the point, Alaa’s journey was from someone who could send these vile tweets to becoming an advocate for dignity, respect and human rights for all, a defender of the oppressed and persecuted no matter what their religion, gender or sexuality.

“Clearly people haven’t read his prison writings or followed his struggle to uphold these principles which resulted in him being imprisoned for a decade. He won support because his life demonstrated how bitterness and anger can be overcome and a voice for humanity can emerge.”

Stand Up to Racism’s Weyman Benett warned ministers that entertaining the deportation call “is a capitulation to a racist argument made by Reform and the Tories.

“One cannot even argue for the rights of Palestinians without falsely being accused of something. It’s a disgrace.”

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP added: “After years of political imprisonment in Egypt, Alaa Abd El-Fattah was finally reunited with his family on Boxing Day.

“MPs are now seriously suggesting a British citizen should be deported because of historic tweets for which he has apologised.

“Letting politicians strip people of their citizenship would set a very dangerous precedent. We must continue campaigning for the release of all political prisoners, everywhere.”

PM Sir Keir Starmer later defended Mr Fattah’s entry into Britain, with his spokesman saying: “We welcome the return of a British citizen unfairly detained abroad, as we would in all cases and as we have done in the past.

“That is central to Britain’s commitment to religious and political freedom.

“That said, it doesn’t change the fact that we have condemned the nature of these historic tweets, and we consider them to be abhorrent, and we’ve been very clear about that.”

When asked about calls to revoke his citizenship, the spokesperson refused to comment.