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/

I don't see why we have to just accept what the Pakistani govt says.

Handing over dissidents sounds dodgy. So why can't we say 'no' to handing over dissidents but if you don't accept these rapist ringleaders then it's no more visas for you?

'Tough-talking' Mahmood is saying she will change the law to deport Shabir Ahmed. They are legislators after all, that's literally their job.

Sounds good. But it's got to get past the lawyers and the objections of the Pakistan government. Also there's people cleared for removal who are still here in the UK years later. And what about all the other grooming gang participants? Anyway, we shall see.

We should just change the law and deport then the day they are convicted of a crime. Up to the Pakistani government to lock them up or not.

You'd be happy for these child rapists to have no jail time if that is what their home country decided?

It’s up to that country to decide what laws they want. They can lock him up or other punishment on arrival /that’s their decision.

It wouldn’t be our problem, would it?

Or just let him or free since it was in another country so who gives a shit.

Seems problematic. I hadn’t heard of them so looked one up. He’s had home arson attacks and acid attacks and says this:

In his December 2025 speech, Akbar accused the Pakistani military regime of employing fear, terror, and illegal tactics, such as kidnapping family members, to silence opposition, arguing that the large protests proved these tactics failed. 1]

He would surely be used as a pawn and have a horrific outcome.

Having been married to a non violent man for decades it's not my problem if other women's husbands beat them senseless but I still care about complete strangers. They're living breathing people.

I really don't like most political regimes outside the Anglosphere and Europe. But every so often we have to pinch our nose to close out the stench, and do some horse-trading.

We don't need to give the dissidents back. We gave Pakistan 200,000 visas over the last year. We also give them aid (this is a country with its own space programme) and we trade with them. These are the levers we could pull. If the UK government had the political will, it could be done.

The BBC report that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will set out today the legal steps she will take to deport this man.

It is not known how long it would take to change the law but one government source previously suggested it could potentially be up to a year.

R4 on it now. They just cut off Maggie Oliver to go to a woman from Chatham House who says relations with Pakistan have hit a diplomatic crisis and they are refusing to accept him as they see it as a colonial mindset

@LalgarhIt’s been reported for several days that Pakistan would not have him. Unfortunately social workers and campaigners don’t tell Pakistan what to do. Neither can our government. It’s that simple. We refuse to have the woman back that went to Syria so we choose not have our own citizen back. This man has been here for a long time. Unfortunately he’s our problem and we have no jurisdiction over Pakistan. The colonial link is clearly stupid. We would ask any country in these circumstances and I bet most would say no. Who wants to import someone like this?

But we give them millions in aid, hundreds of thousands of visas to their citizens, we trade with them. These are the political levers we could pull if there was a political will. 'Tough talking' Mahmood lacks the political will, as does the rest of the Labour Party.

But we've imported thousands of men like this, and we continue to do so. Our governments do not have the interests of the British people at heart. They pretend they do when they start talking tough, but it's all talk.

@5MinuteArgumenti think you are confusing deportation with immigration. For someone to be deported, they have to be accepted into another country. Immigration as I’m sure you know, is entirely different.

I know it's different. I was just pointing out the irony of the situation. Pakistan doesn't want to accept this scumbag into their country, but we've accepted thousands like him from incompatible cultures into our country. And nobody is supposed to object, or even notice, if our government had its way.

Looking on the bright side, once the law has been changed ...

1. We can deport this animal and all the others who have been convicted of equally vile crimes. If that means we refuse all visas until Pakistan changes its mind, so be it.

2. It will be clear to all immigrants that sexual abuse of anyone in the UK, will get them kicked out.

Both excellent news, and the first real sign I have seen that this govt (or any other) gives a toss about the safety of women and girls.

About bloody time !!

Yes, let's hope they follow through on it. It would send a clear signal that the UK actually cares about the wellbeing of its citizens.

@5MinuteArgumentWhy do we expect to offload our dirty linen? Pakistan has draconian sentences for his crime but it’s not stopping Pakistani men. We don’t accept people here knowing they are rapists. Pakistan has enough of their own and they are not gojng to be told by us what to do. The government has little option but to put up our sentencing tariffs at the longer end because other countries are not interested in taking our criminals. Governments always try and look tough in these situations, wait for the fuss to die down, and then quietly fail!

Yes, that's what I think might happen. I suspect this rapist ringleader will still be comfortably back amongst his community in the UK for years to come.

Depressing - let’s hope it doesn’t come to that although I I do understand why Pakistan don’t want him either.

Well at the end of the day, he did the crime and he’s done the time. Maybe the time wasn’t long enough but it was considered ok at the time - well not sure I remember it being called in for being unduly light. So we have him here - hopefully being monitored.

The time’s definitely not long enough! Imagine having to live on the same street as him, especially if you have daughters.