Change law to kick out Rochdale rapist, No 10 urged

[Twiglets1]

Reported in The Telegraph that Labour is facing mounting pressure to change immigration laws immediately so that a child rapist freed from jail can be deported.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail after being convicted of 30 child rape offences as part of the Rochdale grooming gang.

But on Thursday, the Pakistan-born rapist was released after serving 14 years.

Britain stripped him of his citizenship, but cannot currently deport him because of protections granted to Commonwealth immigrants such as Ahmed under the Immigration Act 1971.

On Thursday, Downing Street said the Prime Minister had asked Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, to “consider what can be done” to deport Ahmed, describing his case as “particularly heinous”.

It comes after Andy Burnham, expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, also vowed to “review all options” to deport the "vile criminal".

The amendment to Ms Mahmood’s immigration bill will propose rewriting the 1971 act to permit the removal of serious criminals such as Ahmed.

However, even if an amendment were to pass, two senior Pakistani government officials told The Telegraph that the country would not accept Ahmed back because he renounced his Pakistani citizenship “several decades ago”.

They added that he posed a danger to Pakistani children.

If their claim is correct, it places Ahmed in the same situation as two other freed Pakistani ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gang whom Pakistan has refused to take back.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/02/deport-foreign-born-child-rapists-demand-labour-mps/

Pakistan gets £133 million in foreign aid, almost all of which is directed at education for women. I don’t want to see that removed, thank you.

£133 million and we have councils giving out tents here because they don’t have emergency accommodation available. I know where I’d like my taxes to go.

Just stop approving any visas for travel to the UK from Pakistan, until Shebir Ahmed is repatriated. It's not hard, but it needs to be ruthless.

I agree, our government's first responsibility is to its own citizens. We have homeless people sleeping rough including ex armed forces.

Exactly. If people don't want to cut the aid, we can cut the visas instead. Where there's a will, there's a way.

He is no longer a national of Pakistan.

He’s a British citizen.

That's not true.

It is true. He renounced his Pakistani citizenship.

That is not how it works.

There is this as well-

"The UK’s vision is for a more inclusive, prosperous, and stable Pakistan which is less reliant on external finance, more resilient to shocks, and contributing to regional security, while becoming a diminishing source of threats (criminal and security) to the UK and more aligned with the UK’s global geopolitical interests."

So the aid UK partnership with Pakistan is also about helping to reduce criminal and security threat. That will be replying to visa center requests to Pakistan police etc.

Now people might say cancel all visas and that goes away anyway. Fair enough, but then there is this.

"Our work to empower women and girls has ensured that over 34 million people were reached through campaigns to prevent violence against women and girls, minorities, and child marriages. There has been an increase in UK-Pakistan bilateral trade from £2.4 billion (2020) to £4.1 billion (2022)."

Source :

UK–Pakistan development partnership summary - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I am with you @BIossomtoes after reading that document.

For dual nationals that is how it works.

Remember when dual national, American born and American citizen Boris renounced his US citizenship ?

UK's foreign secretary renounces US citizenship | AP News

It's UN rules. Citizens can renounce citizenship so long as it does not leave them stateless. Indeed, for states such as the PRC who do not recognise dual citizenship, citizens have to revoke if they gain another citizenship ( under that States rules). But statelessness is not allowed.

That’s exactly how it works.

Dame Louise Casey was on the radio earlier. Doesn't understand why he's being released early and understands it will be nigh on impossible but thinks he should be deported

I think that given it will be nigh on impossible to get this monster deported, the UK government needs to decide what it is going to do to ensure that he can do no more harm in this country, put it in place and be transparent with the British public about exactly what measures they have taken to ensure he is never not being watched - never free to do what he wants again.

Yes, I hope we're all happy with the amount of money this is going to cost. He could live another 20 years.

Not happy with spending huge amounts of money on this waste of space, no. But don't see there's an alternative, being realistic.

Hope to be proved wrong though and he can be deported somehow.

If this is true then it should be stopped immediately. No way should we be funding education in other countries.

Not that simple. Pakistan don’t want him, and he has no passport.

I’m sure they’ll take him back if they can keep some of the obscene amount if our money they are trousering

Yes, especially as Pakistan has a space programme, including ambitions for lunar exploration.

This is mad, they take him back or no more VISAs from Pakistan.

Pakistan sets out demands for taking back Rochdale rapist

Pakistan is demanding the extradition of political dissidents from the UK if Britain wants to secure the deportation of the Rochdale grooming gang ringleader.

A senior Pakistani government official has told The Telegraph that Britain needs to “respect the issues that matter” to Pakistan rather than resort to “arm-twisting” and threats to return Shabir Ahmed, a child rapist, to Pakistan.

Pakistan has refused to take back Ahmed and two other ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gang because they claim not to be Pakistani, having renounced their citizenship.

However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan was prepared to think “out of the box” and “beyond normal procedures” on what it might agree to pave the way for a possible return of Ahmed to Pakistan.

It is understood that Pakistan has raised concerns with the UK about several dissidents and political activists living in the UK, including two who are subject to formal extradition requests by Pakistan.

Last December it sought the extradition of Shahzad Akbar, a member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s cabinet, and Adil Raja, a Pakistani journalist and ex-military officer, for alleged “fake news” and anti-state propaganda.

“There are people using British soil to destabilise Pakistan, in violation of several British laws, but the UK has done absolutely nothing about them,” said the official.

“The UK tells us these miscreants are law-abiding and following UK law. They tell us they have to protect their human rights and free speech. We have shared evidence that they incite hatred, violence and social unrest, but the UK does not listen to us. Why double standards?”

The official suggested UK-Pakistan negotiations over Ahmed, as well as other grooming gang member, had been going on for nearly a year in anticipation of his release.

“Our position is that they [the UK] must listen to us too. Both sides need to apply standards. Pakistan cannot be railroaded into agreeing to terms and conditions that are suitable only to the UK,” he said.

“The UK knows what our demands are. We have made our demands and concerns categorically clear to the UK. Some people in the UK are only playing media games. They are not being honest.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/07/pakistan-sets-out-demands-for-taking-back-rochdale-rapist/

Yeah..this is Hardball diplomacy as id expected from them

Not entirely unreasonable what the official is saying.