Dame Emily Thornberry has criticised the government for failing to appoint a special envoy to handle complex detention cases, highlighting 'embarrassing' shortcomings in the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah. She argued that a dedicated official could have prevented failures in due diligence and information sharing, and urged the Foreign Secretary to act on previous commitments to introduce such a role. Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who was granted British citizenship in 2021, was recently pardoned by Egypt and reunited with his family in the United Kingdom. His return was initially celebrated by politicians, but controversy arose after old social media posts resurfaced, leading to calls for his citizenship to be revoked, although no legal grounds for this have been identified.