London: Andy Burnham, widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer as Britain’s new prime minister later this month, is leading calls for the deportation of a grooming gang ringleader to Pakistan after he was released from prison on Thursday. Burnham, the MP for Makerfield likely to be elected unopposed later this month after Starmer’s recent resignation, said he will “review all options” to remove Shabir Ahmed convicted in 2012 of multiple charges of rape and sexual offences against young girls.
The scandal, which rocked Rochdale in Greater Manchester, falls within Burnham’s patch as the region’s former mayor and has hit the headlines again after it emerged that Ahmed is protected under a 1970s law that blocks his deportation. “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first,” said Burnham. “I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options,” he said.
Ahmed, a 73-year-old dual national, was stripped of his British citizenship when he was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment by a UK court.
However, a Probation Service letter informing victims of his early release under a prison scheme this week revealed that as per the UK’s Immigration Act 1971, any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973 and had been here for at least five years, cannot be deported.
The issue is said to have been further complicated by the fact that there is reluctance on the part of the receiving country, Pakistan, to accept the criminal.
“The government is exploring every option in this case,” Sir Alan Campbell, Leader of the House of Commons, told MPs in response to a parliamentary question on Thursday.
Ahmed is now being electronically tracked through a GPS tag while housed in a monitored accommodation since his release from prison.
“Ahmed’s horrific crimes were at the heart of the grooming gangs scandal that represents one of the darkest moments in our country’s history,” a 10 Downing Street spokesperson said.
“He will rightly be on the sex offenders register for life, ordered to stay away from his victims and banned from contacting any child or young person. His every movement will be tracked, and forced to wear an electronic tag,” the spokesperson said.
The government is considering whether the 1971 law could be changed through an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.
Meanwhile, Chris Philp, the Opposition Conservative shadow home secretary, told the BBC that he was planning to lay his own amendment to the bill to remove the provisions preventing Ahmed’s deportation.
The convicted rapist, who it emerged during trial was known as “Daddy” by his victims, was the ringleader of a group of nine men who groomed and sexually abused teenage girls. The men’s modus operandi was to gain the trust of their victims by offering takeaway food and cigarettes, later plying them with alcohol before raping them.
According to reports, the British government remains in talks with Pakistan to deport two other gang members, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, who were also stripped of their British citizenship in 2022.
In their case, the duo has resorted to the European Convention on Human Rights article related to the right to family life to avoid being deported.
