The UK Conservative Party has drafted legislative amendments aimed at closing legal loopholes that block the deportation of Shabir Ahmed, the convicted ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp urged Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to adopt the proposals as emergency legislation to expedite the removal of the 73-year-old child rapist, who was released on license last week.
The current legal framework protects certain Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 from deportation, even after losing British citizenship.
Ahmed lost his citizenship in 2016 after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence.
"Shabir Ahmed is a vile rapist who organised a gang of Pakistani-origin men to systematically gang rape girls as young as 12.
Despicable men like this have no place in the UK and he must be urgently deported back to Pakistan," Philp said.
Philp stated that the technical amendment would target the Immigration Act 1971 to remove barriers preventing the immediate removal of foreign national offenders.
"That's why we'll table a technical amendment to the Government's immigration bill to close the legal loophole dating back to 1971 preventing his deportation.
I also call on the Government to act even more quickly by introducing our amendment as emergency legislation, which can be passed through Parliament in days," Philp added.
The opposition politician challenged regional leadership to support the fast-tracked legislative adjustment to ensure the offender's swift removal.
"We cannot allow this vile rapist to stay in the UK a moment longer than necessary.
This will be a test of whether Andy Burnham is serious about deporting foreign criminals. If he is serious, he should immediately accept our proposals," Philp said.
The legislative challenge intensifies diplomatic pressure on Mahmood, who faces calls from local Oldham and Rochdale MPs to alter the law ahead of the immigration bill's second reading on July 13.
Diplomatic complications persist as Pakistani authorities maintain that Ahmed is no longer a citizen of Pakistan, asserting he renounced his citizenship and destroyed his passport, a claim the British government disputes.
"We are not a weak country. We do have ways of doing this – we're giving around £80m every year in aid to Pakistan.
The Home Office issues tens of thousands of visas to Pakistanis.
We should be pausing the aid, pausing the visas, putting maximum pressure on the Pakistani government to take this man back," said Robert Jenrick, Reform UK Treasury spokesman.
Government officials indicated that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Home Secretary Mahmood are evaluating all diplomatic countermeasures, including visa restrictions, to resolve the repatriation deadlock.
Ahmed remains under continuous GPS monitoring, restricted by geographical exclusion zones away from Rochdale and Oldham, and resides in 24-hour staffed accommodation with strict internet and contact bans.
"We are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders and are clear they should have no place in this country," said a Government spokesman.
The official acknowledged that successful deportations rely heavily on bilateral agreements with recipient nations, which frequently present administrative hurdles.
"As previous governments have found, this necessarily involves the agreement of the receiving country, which has not always been possible in some countries," the Government spokesman added.
Cross-departmental teams continue to review domestic and international avenues to ensure the deportation is executed.
"But we are currently working with colleagues across government to explore all possible options to deport this vile criminal," the Government spokesman said.
