Pressure mounts on Government to change law and deport grooming gang ringleader
Shabir Ahmed, known to his victims as “Daddy”, was released from prison on Thursday, after serving 14 years since his conviction in 2012 for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls
The Government is facing mounting pressure to change the law so a Rochdale grooming gang ringleader can be deported.
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Shabir Ahmed, 73, who has been stripped of his British citizenship leaving him with only Pakistani nationality, cannot be deported due to a 1971 law that forbids the removal of a small group of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.
The Conservatives have said they will attempt to amend the Government’s Immigration and Asylum Bill “to close the loophole”.
Ahmed, known to his victims as “Daddy”, was released from prison on Thursday, after serving 14 years since his conviction in 2012 for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls.
Read more: Rochdale grooming gang leader freed from prison - as No10 steps up efforts to have him deported
Read more: PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham targets Rochdale grooming gang ringleader with new deportation drive
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “It’s absolutely disgusting that this man has been let out.
“He should be deported, and we’re going to do everything within our power to make sure that he is, but we’re going to need the Government to get behind us.
“Whether it’s Keir Starmer or Andy Burnham, what I want to see is them agreeing with us, so that we can get that amendment through.”
Ahmed is understood to have been freed on licence and told he must initially live at a bail hostel which is staffed 24 hours and wear an electronic GPS tag.
He will not be allowed to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham and is subject to an “exclusion zone” meaning he cannot go to parts of Rochdale.
The Times reported that the UK is in talks with Pakistan, but the country will still have to agree to take Ahmed back, which a Home Office source told the paper was “highly unlikely”.
The Telegraph reported that Pakistan would not accept Ahmed because he previously renounced his citizenship.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister had asked Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to consider options for ensuring his deportation, describing his case as “particularly heinous”.
In a statement, No 10 said: “We are absolutely clear that where foreign nationals commit offences in the UK we will do everything in our power to remove them.”
Mr Burnham, expected to replace Sir Keir as prime minister, has also vowed to “review all options” to deport the rapist.
Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012 as one of nine men convicted of offences against five girls.