'British people are arrested for speech, while figures who flirt with violence are welcomed,' says Matthew Goodwin

That is modern Britain in a nutshell: ordinary people monitored, reported and punished for holding mainstream views, while extremists are celebrated so long as their ideology aligns with that of the cultural elite.

Keir Starmer and senior Labour figures have hailed Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s return as a humanitarian triumph.

Yet his public record includes praise for violence, hatred of the West and support for terrorism. Are we really supposed to believe the Government did not know?

Are we seriously meant to accept that No10 failed to vet this man’s tweets?

Jewish organisations have rightly condemned the remarks. But the Prime Minister has doubled down, choosing performative compassion over basic judgement.

This is not a one-off mistake. Let’s be clear about what is happening in Britain. It is what happens when empathy becomes ideology: limitless tolerance for those who despise our society, and zero tolerance for those who question immigration, broken borders and rapid cultural change.

British people are arrested for speech, while figures who flirt with violence are welcomed through the doors of Keir Starmer’s Downing Street.

If a right-leaning activist had said the same things, the response would have been instant and unforgiving. But because this fits the approved narrative in Westminster, it gets a free pass.

This is the uniparty at work.

Labour and Conservative alike are more interested in virtue signalling than defending the national interest.

Meanwhile, ordinary Britons feel ignored, vilified and, in some cases, criminalised for expressing entirely legitimate frustrations over policies they never even voted for.

A nation that once prized free speech, fair debate and careful judgement now punishes those who question the direction of mass, uncontrolled immigration, even as it opens its doors to individuals whose rhetoric is deeply hostile to the country itself.

This is not leadership. It is moral exhibitionism.

And it is eroding the once-sacred bond of trust between the governed and those who claim to represent them.

Unless Westminster wakes up, the backlash will not simply be about economics or culture wars.

It will be about who gets to belong in this country — and who gets to decide.