LONDON: The mother of jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah is close to death after eight months on hunger strike, her daughter warned on Friday.

Laila Soueif, 69, was hospitalised in London on Thursday with `critically low` blood sugar, having resumed her full hunger strike last week.

Doctors gave `her proteins that help the body produce glucose`, her anxious daughter Sanaa Seif said outside St Thomas hospital in London.

`It worked for a couple of hours`, but the `bottom line is, we`re losing her, and... there is no time,` Seif added, saying her mother was still refusing to accept glucose.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer `needs to act now, not tomorrow, not Monday. Now, right now,` she said.`It`s a miracle that we still have her, Pm really proud of her, and I want to remind Keir Starmer (of) his promise to us.

Soueif`s son Abdel Fattah was arrested in Egypt in Sept 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of `spreading false news` after sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

The 43-year-old writer and activist has become a symbol of the plight of thousands of political prisoners languishing in Egyptian jails.

A United Nations panel of experts on Wednesday determined his detention was arbitrary and illegal and called for his immediate release.

Soueif has been on hunger strike since Sept 29 last year, the day her son was expected to be released after completing his five-year prison sentence.-AFP