The row over Alaa Abd el-Fattah's UK citizenship has reignited debate about what it means to be British, as calls to strip his passport clash with long-standing government support for the activist.
Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian dual national, was freed from an Egyptian prison and arrived in the UK last week, only for his past offensive tweets to resurface, prompting Reform UK and the Conservatives to demand citizenship removal.
The controversy comes as a new Institute for Public Policy Research study reveals that 36% of people now believe you must be born in the UK to be truly British, nearly double the 19% recorded in 2023.
The cases of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Jimmy Lai illustrate the multiple routes to citizenship, from naturalisation to historical entitlement, yet political discourse appears to be narrowing around birthplace and ancestry.
Sir Keir Starmer has sought to frame the election as a battle between progressive patriotism and nationalist politics, but some within his party argue he has been too hesitant in making the case for an inclusive national identity.
