Good as it is to know that the Home Office does not intend to take any action to remove Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s citizenship over “abhorrent” past social media posts, the fact that, in limited circumstances, it is an option ought to cause us real concern (Alaa Abd el-Fattah ‘will not be stripped of British citizenship’ over past tweets, 30 December).
The recent Institute for Public Policy Research report that 36% of people now think you must be born British to be truly British (Report, 29 December) cannot be separated from the conduct of debates like those around Abd el-Fattah. If, for those who are not white and born in the UK, citizenship is a gift of the state that can be withdrawn, then it’s not citizenship at all but a form of limited leave like any other.
Thus Shamima Begum is left to rot in a refugee camp, despite never having been tried for any crime, while the fascist nail bomber David Copeland is serving a sentence in a UK jail. If the Overton window is shifting on this issue, it’s being pushed by the fact that Keir Starmer is “tell[ing] a story about what Britain is and what he wants it to be” (Abd el-Fattah citizenship row shows shift on questions of national identity, 29 December), and it’s one that echoes the rhetoric of Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch.
Labour’s February 2025 policy change establishes a blanket presumption against granting citizenship to anyone who previously entered the UK illegally, regardless of how much time has passed. Moreover, the Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Act 2025, recently hurried through parliament, represents a fundamental shift in how citizenship deprivation cases are handled during the appeals process.
Under the old system, individuals who successfully appealed against their citizenship deprivation had their status restored while government appeals continued. The new act ensures that deprivation orders remain in effect throughout all appeals processes, including any further government appeals to higher courts.
This means that individuals stripped of their citizenship would remain non-citizens until every legal avenue has been exhausted. So long as citizenship remains an absolute right for some, whatever they do, however abhorrent, and a conditional gift for others, the perception that only white British-born people are really citizens will be further entrenched.
Nick Moss
London
• Thank you for Naomi Klein’s thoughtful reflection (Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s tweets were wrong, but he is no ‘anti-white Islamist’. Why does the British right want you to believe he is?, 31 December). I was uncomfortable listening to the shadow home secretary on the BBC refer to him as a “scumbag” repeatedly, despite governments of all hues having fought for his release. I thought such playground name-calling should be beneath a member of the shadow cabinet.
Reading Naomi Klein’s piece reminded me of Abd el-Fattah’s courageous activism and invites us all to judge him on his deeds. To defend only speech with which we agree and not accept Abd el-Fattah’s apology for old, regretted posts is a very slippery slope.
Sally March
London
• Kemi Badenoch has called into question Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s British citizenship on the grounds of his “social media activity, public statements and patterns of belief”. I look forward to her comments on Nigel Farage’s citizenship.
Dr Richard Carter
Putney, London
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