The Home Office is facing fresh questions tonight after leaked footage emerged of Somali-British dual national Ahmed Artan returning to Mogadishu waving a UK biometric residence permit at cameras. Artan, a former local councillor in Tower Hamlets, was deported last month amid a Home Office crackdown on alleged terror links. His return has sparked fury among Conservative backbenchers who see it as a spectacular own goal by the department.
Sources inside the Home Office insist the move was a legal necessity. Artan’s appeal against removal was upheld by a tribunal, forcing Whitehall to grant him re-entry. But the optics are brutal. The footage shows Artan grinning as he holds up the document, a clear taunt to the government’s flagship ‘Hostile Environment’ policy.
The timing could not be worse for Prime Minister Starmer. Internal polling, seen by this bureau, shows immigration and border security have overtaken the economy as the top issue among swing voters in the Red Wall. A cabinet revolt is brewing. Three senior ministers told me they would ‘demand answers’ at tomorrow’s morning meeting.
Artan’s lawyer, speaking from a safe house, said his client would now ‘exercise his right to free movement under British law’. That is likely to inflame tensions further. The Attorney General’s office is already examining whether any reciprocal agreement with Somalia could be invoked to prevent future returns.
Readers will recall that Artan was originally removed under emergency powers after a security assessment flagged his alleged involvement in recruiting for Al-Shabaab. Those charges were never tested in court. Civil liberties groups have long argued the deportation was a ‘kangaroo court process’. They say his return vindicates their warnings about the erosion of due process.
But inside the Lobby, the mood is grim. One Downing Street insider described the incident as a ‘gift to Reform UK’. The party’s leader was quick to capitalise, calling for Starmer to ‘apologise to the British people’ and for the Home Secretary to resign.
The story is still developing. The Home Secretary is expected to make a statement to the Commons later tonight. I am told the Prime Minister has already been briefed. The question now is not whether Artan is a threat, but whether the government can survive the fallout from looking weak on borders.
More follows.
