PM to say Reform UK leader is promoting a ‘fantasy’ that would unleash a Truss-style economic crisisStarmer to say Reform’s spending plans would cause Truss-style meltdownJohn Casson said the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah is not isolated as any British national travelling to Egypt faces arrest and illegal detention.He told the BBC:After four years as ambassador in Egypt, if a friend or family came to me today and said, ‘Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?’, I would be saying you’re taking a real risk.If you get into any kind of difficulties, you post the wrong thing on social media even, there’s no guarantee [of] your right to be protected.Of course, our civil servants are always cautious about offending a country like Egypt, and that’s why we’re really saying this: this needs political will. It takes political will and a readiness to take real action and say that Egypt can’t have it both ways.Egypt pretends to be a friend. It depends on British visitors to keep its economy afloat, and we need to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy.It’s abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah – tortured him.It’s kept him in prison on bogus charges. It’s causing a lot of distress to his family. But it’s also abusing the rights of the British government to do its normal business, and it’s blocking our embassy for the most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble.