UK government will change law so grooming gang ringleader can be deported

The home secretary will change the law so the freed ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang can be deported, the BBC has been told.

As first reported by the Telegraph, Shabana Mahmood is expected to set out on Monday how she plans to amend the 1971 Immigration Act which currently stops Shabir Ahmed being removed from the UK.

Ahmed, 73, was jailed for 22 years in August 2012 for a number of child sexual offences including rape. He was released on licence last week.

Known to his victims as “Daddy”, Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of the former following his 2012 conviction.

At the time of his release, his victims were told he could not be deported to Pakistan due to the 55-year-old Immigration Act, which bars the removal of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973 and had been in the country for five years.

After leaving prison, Ahmed was sent to 24-hour staffed accommodation and fitted with a GPS electronically monitored tag.

Some of his victims said they were “frightened” by his release, and they felt “unsafe”.

While he is in the UK, the government has said any breach of Ahmed’s strict licence conditions would result in him being immediately returned to prison.