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Efforts to secure the release of the British-Egyptian activist regularly distracted the Starmer administration from focusing on bread-and-butter domestic political issues, according to one of the prime minister’s closest ex-aides.

A 'Running Joke' Within Government

Paul Ovenden, who stood down last year as the PM's chief of strategy, claimed the case of the imprisoned activist evolved into a “running joke” among those in Whitehall frustrated by the slow pace of change.

“We'd hold extended discussions on the priorities of the government, and frequently they would be railroaded via AOB into discussions of this individual,” he stated on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He continued, “The majority on the political team of government weren’t that aware of it – weren’t that tuned into it – because it didn't affect us daily. It actually became a sort of a standing joke within government that people would invariably find a way to return to this conversation.”

A Sign of Wider Struggles

Ovenden said the amount of time spent on freeing Abd el-Fattah was indicative of a government that has struggled to remain concentrated on the public's main concerns in the face of pressure from “influential” campaign organisations and arms-length bodies.

Ovenden’s comments came in his initial public statement since he resigned in September, after it was revealed he sent offensive texts about the Labour MP Diane Abbott eight years ago.

Echoes of PM's Own Concerns

However, Ovenden’s political analysis is echoed by many in Downing Street, including the prime minister, who lamented last month about bureaucratic hurdles delaying government action.

Ovenden said Abd el-Fattah’s case was among a number of areas where the government became distracted from its main objectives. He pointed to rows over compensation for historical injustices and prohibiting cigarettes in pub gardens as other instances.

“At a time when the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with a lack of progress, increasingly tired with distraction, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be spending their time on what I consider distractions,” he said.

Calls for Policy Overhaul

In a further article, he urges the government to scale back green rules, reduce benefits expenditure and even end the guaranteed pension increase mechanism.

“We don’t have to keep picking the pockets of the wealth-generating sectors of our economy in order to pay for above-inflation pension rises for millionaires or an unsustainable welfare system,” he writes. “We don’t have to stifle entrepreneurs at birth with regulatory burdens.”

As one of a small group of advisers around the prime minister since his days in opposition, his exit was widely regarded as a setback to Starmer, while his analysis of governmental focus resonates in certain quarters.