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/

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

More like the first time they've realised that seeming to want to protect women and girls while at the same time throwing an immigrant out of the country with a great fanfare will be a massive vote winner in multiple sectors of the voting public.

I seriously doubt that many on the left in politics believe that throwing out a man who's lived in this country 53 years to a country with even more vulnerable women and children which doesn't want him is the correct thing to do.

@Twiglets1 People live on the same street as all sorts of awful people. Ones who haven’t been caught for example! I don’t know if the sentencing guidelines have been altered in the intervening 14 years but people are clutching at straws if they think Pakistan is taking him back. We have imported these problems so it’s our problem.

It remains to be seen whether Pakistan will take him back. As I understand it, negotiations are still taking place and Pakistan is demanding something in return - namely the extradition of political dissidents from the UK.

The government is closing the legal loophole that would previously have prevented his deportation.

Referring to Ahmed as a "vile grooming gang leader", Shabana Mahmood said the government's amendment would now let Commonwealth citizens be deported if they have committed serious crimes. While acknowledging that Ahmed's removal was dependent on Pakistan agreeing to take him.

Yes, Mahmood is great at tough talking. But it's actions that count. I think Labour will make all the noise about removing this scumbag and then the upshot will be that he won't be removed. Because they don't have the will to use the levers available to them: aid, visas, trade.

More gaslighting from Labour.

I would bet what Pakistan wants won’t be palatable to us. I would bet we are stuck with him and our Aid has not smoothed the way for anything! We can change our laws all we want but if the receiving country won’t play nicely, it’s to no avail.

Yes, but only because of the weakness and spinelessness of the UK govt. They have 3 levers to pull: aid, visas and trade. We have the cards, to quote President Trump. If we refuse to play them, more fool us.

As for handing over dissidents: hard no.

@5MinuteArgument Don’t believe they are strong levers at all! Pakistan can get what we export from somewhere else: ever heard of China? What do we import from them? Not much I think plus trade wars? So Trumpian. It won’t happen. Visas? To empty our universities even more? To have nhs staff shortages? Well qualified people don’t have to come here, they have choices. We have virtually nothing Pakistan cares about. This whole thing is tub thumping and pretending we have more clout than we do. Being bullies is never a good look.

We have virtually nothing Pakistan cares about.

I'm sure they care about the millions in aid that we give them. Supposed to be part of our 'soft power'. Stop giving it to them. Let them redirect the resources they put into their space programme to helping their own people instead.

@5MinuteArgument A bit but not as much as you think and removing it is throwing out toys out of the pram. Soft power is not going to swing this unless we are very very lucky. There’s no real advantage to Pakistan at all.

Calling Britain a 'bully' is a bit of a stretch. For the most part the govt of this country is weak, spineless and pathetic, turning this country into a soft touch and a magnet for people who wish to do us harm.

@5MinuteArgument Pakistan have already played the colonial card. Of course they will see it as imperial power and bullying. I’m not bothered one way or another but Pakistan will be.

"the colonial card" suggests you don't really believe that Britain is a bully either.

A country can't be blamed forever for things that happened historically or almost every country would be guilty of something.

Yes, most countries with a colonial past don't give a flying fig about it. Don't see why we should have to wring our hands and kow-tow to all and sundry. Its pathetic and its not what people want.

@Twiglets1I put that comment in “ “ because I could not find another way to express it. What other way is there when a nation says we are acting as a colonial power? Ie telling them what to do. It’s clearly a valid argument in their view and it was pointed out to us. I’m not convinced it’s relevant 75 years on but I’m not in Pakistan. Comments like that are inevitable too.

I think bullying is more about taking aid away and stopping visas. Reprisals are never a good look - look at Trump!

I mean - we could just ignore references to "colonial power" rather than keep repeating them. And it's offensive to British people to refer to Britain as "bullies".
Would you use an offensive term like that when talking about Pakistan? They have things in their past too that they won't be proud of today.

What it boils down to is nothing to do with colonial power. It is quite simple really. Pakistan don't want to accept him back, which I can understand. They will only do it if they get something in return that they really want. It's up to the UK government to negotiate a deal whereby both countries gain something in a deal to deport this man back to Pakistan.

I am British! I know we tend to think we are superior and certainly have tried to bully other nations in the past! I would use the term about anyone if it fits. 100% I would. No one seems to hold back from calling Trump a bully.

In this case, the poster I was responding to wanted all aid cut, no visas issued etc and I believe that’s bullying and not likely to get a good response from Pakistan. It’s not diplomacy and it’s not going to work. Pakistan has referred to colonial overtones - that’s on the record so we cannot pretend it’s not happened. Of course Pakistan isn’t whiter than white but in diplomacy you deal with what is in front of you now, not 75 years ago, but when a poster says we need a hard line against Pakistan to get what we want, I very much do not agree that’s going to work.

It’s a much bigger issue in many ways that people seem to believe that changing our laws means other countries will agree to deportations that we now deem legal. It’s patently not the case so why do we think our laws override their views? Is it that we think we are superior? We make a law and others jump to it? That’s not going to happen!

I never said you weren't. But what happened in the past is not something we have to keep apologising for and putting Britain down for. You don't see other countries doing that - rightly they live in the present or look to the future rather than perpetuating self-hatred for historical wrongs they can't change.

So your solution is that we keep this scumbag in Britain. In fairness that is probably what will happen.

The govt talk tough but they won't follow through. There are too many people who think Britain should not be able to negotiate robustly with other countries because of our colonial past. I'm not one of those people. I don't want Britain to be weak and pathetic.

@5MinuteArgument At what point did I say it was a solution? My argument is that there’s NO solution if Pakistan won’t take him. Neither did I say we cannot negotiate because of the colonialist past. I said Pakistan had raised it as a negative. You will find that diplomacy doesn’t work in the way you would like it to. Why do you think the Rwanda deal was negotiated for example? All those immigrants we could not send home. It’s virtually impossible to get a country to accept a criminal who is now free. Sometimes we might exchange prisoners but this is not the case here. It’s a hard lesson to learn but we cannot tell others what to do and threatening won’t be well received and we would not like it either.

He was staying in Hyndburn which is very close to Rochdale (part of Accrington) the MP for there put a post out on Facebook saying he had been moved on. There are reports he has been moved to another neighbouring town which I won't name incase it isn't true. These towns are all too close. It's disgusting.

Yes, the punishment for this scumbag is totally inadequate. He's done14 years for 30 counts of child rape. He's been barred from entering some parts of Greater Manchester inc Rochdale, but as you say these towns are quite close together and I imagine the communities there are closely connected. So for him it's largely business as usual. This is why community cohesion in this country is fraying.

Making him serve his whole sentence would be a start. But, broadly, I think it would be sensible for people of foreign origin to be deported automatically at the end of their sentence. It’s a privilege to get to live in another country, and even more of a privilege to be granted their passport. Committing a crime is an abuse of that privilege.

I agree, and abuse of that privilege should have consequences.

So if Pakistan won't accept him we have to keep him in the UK? I hear he's recently been housed near to a primary school and a mosque so he must be very happy at the outcome of his crimes against British children.

Does that mean the activities of 'tough talking' Mahmood on this case are all performative? I think they probably are.

@5MinuteArgument I have no idea where he is but yes, he’s our trash.