LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked the Home Secretary to review the case of Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed, amid calls to change the law to allow his deportation.
Shabir, 73, known to his victims as “Daddy”, was released from prison on Thursday, having served 14 years since his conviction in 2012 for multiple rapes and sexual offenses against young girls. He moved to the UK from Gujarat in Pakistan in the late 1970s, when he was 14. He holds no Pakistani identity documents and revoked his Pakistani citizenship decades ago to obtain British citizenship.
He was reportedly released on license and told he must first live in a 24-hour hostel and wear an electronic GPS tag. He will therefore not be allowed to travel to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham and is subject to an “exclusion zone”, meaning he cannot travel to parts of Rochdale.
He was stripped of his British citizenship, leaving him without status. He cannot be deported because of a 1971 law which prohibits the expulsion of a small group of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister had asked Shabana Mahmood to consider options to secure Ahmed’s deportation, calling his case “particularly abhorrent”.
In a statement, he said: “We are absolutely clear that when foreign nationals commit offenses in the UK, we will do everything in our power to deport them. »
Ahmed’s imminent release has sparked calls for action from politicians, including likely next Prime Minister Andy Burnham – who called on senior ministers to “consider all possible options” for his deportation.
In the Commons, Rochdale Labor MP Paul Waugh called for Ahmed to be expelled, saying the Foreign Office “should do everything in its power” to ensure this happens.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would attempt to amend the government’s Immigration and Asylum Bill “to close this loophole so this man can be deported immediately”.
Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012, as one of nine men convicted of offenses against five girls.
A senior Pakistani government official exclusively told PK Press Club News that Shabbir Ahmed is stateless and is not a Pakistani national.
The official said Ahmed does not hold British citizenship and revoked his Pakistani citizenship many years ago. “As far as we’re concerned, it’s an alien,” the official added.
