The Home Secretary proposes an emergency amendment to strip ’71 legal protections from the “vilest foreign criminals.”
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood announced plans on Monday, 13 July ’26, to change UK law to permit a convicted paedophile who had led a so-called grooming gang to be deported following his recent release from prison.
Shabir Ahmed was jailed 14 years ago in ’12 for 22 years for multiple child sexual offences, including rape. This was when Ahmed was the ringleader of a gang of similar predatory men targeting girls in Rochdale, northern England.
Ahmed left prison on licence earlier this month under the UK’s early release programme.
Ahmed had been stripped of his British citizenship following his conviction. This left him with only Pakistani nationality. However, a ’71 immigration law has prevented his deportation so far.
The law prohibits the removal of Commonwealth nationals who, similar to Ahmed, arrived in the UK before ’73.
Announcing that the law may be changed through an amendment to the Immigration & Asylum Bill, which is working its way through parliament, Mahmood added to MPs that it would ensure ‘the vilest foreign criminals’ can be deported.
Mahmood added that in response to the widely reported case of the vile grooming gang leader, Shabir Ahmed, the UK’s amendment may provide the Home Secretary with a new power to disapply Section 7 of the Immigration Act ’71 for serious criminals.
Mahmood further stated that the amendment provides protections for long-term residents. However, clearly, it should not be acting as a bar against removal in cases like that of Shabir Ahmed.
However, Mahmood noted that the amendment alone wouldn’t guarantee Ahmed’s removal, as Pakistan would be required to agree to accept him back. The UK media had reported previously that Islamabad had refused to oblige.
Mahmood opined that ministers were continuing to explore all avenues to pursue deportation.
Opposition parties have demanded that the government pressure Pakistan to comply. They argued that the UK should threaten to cut overseas aid besides imposing other penalties if Pakistan refuses.
The issue of grooming has received much attention in recent years; however, activist Tommy Robinson and Mohan Singh from the Sikh Awareness Society had been active for many years in bringing attention to grooming gangs which were largely ignored.
