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Labour has the power to deport Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah, according to legal experts. The Tories and Reform UK are calling for the democracy activist, who arrived in Britain last month following his release from years of detention in Egypt, to have his UK citizenship stripped after historic tweets emerged.

But it is understood there are no plans for this, with claims that the legal threshold for doing so had not been met. However, former Tory attorney general Michael Ellis said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood does have the power to revoke Mr Abd El-Fattah’s citizenship, which was granted in 2021 reportedly through his UK-born mother, under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981.

The law allows for the deprivation of citizenship on the grounds of “unacceptable behaviour such as the glorification of terrorism”.

Mr Ellis told The Telegraph: “Parliament is supreme, and Parliament passed the 1981 Act which gives the Home Secretary powers in cases like this.

“She should exercise those powers… the fact that the Government is not doing that suggests that either they have already given up, or they have no desire to do it because they don’t want to take this man’s citizenship away.”

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the Conservatives will table an urgent question to Ms Mahmood when Parliament returns on Monday asking why she has not used her powers against Mr Abd El-Fattah.

He said: “The Home Secretary has the power to revoke el-Fattah’s citizenship – a power the Supreme Court has upheld in the Shamima Begum case.

“She should do so immediately, and Conservatives will be demanding she does when Parliament returns.”

It comes as the activist has been at the centre of a row after now-deleted posts on X appeared to show him branding Britons “dogs and monkeys”, calling for Zionists to be killed and violence against the police, and expressing hatred of white people.

Mr Abd El-Fattah has since apologised and claimed some posts had been “completely twisted out of their meaning”, while others were “expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth”.

Downing Street described Mr Abd El-Fattah’s apology as “fairly fulsome”, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman adding: “That’s clearly the right thing to do.”

Mr Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned in Egypt on charges of spreading false news, in a process branded a breach of international law by UN investigators.

He was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in September following years of lobbying by Conservative and Labour governments, and flew to the UK on Boxing Day after a travel ban was lifted.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was criticised for publicly welcoming him after the Twitter posts dating back to 2010 surfaced.