Government 'cannot deport' grooming gang ringleader

In 2022, Andy Burnham, likely to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, called on the Conservative government "to do everything within [its] power" to deport members of grooming gangs.

Paul Waugh, MP for Rochdale, told The Daily Telegraph: "The people of Rochdale want him booted out of the country and it's simply unacceptable that the government of Pakistan are refusing to take him back.

"If the Citizenship Act needs to be amended to do that, ministers should look at doing just that."

For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs, gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls for sex.

Ahmed was described in court as a "violent, hypocritical bully".

At his trial, he called the judge a "racist" and took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming he had not received a fair trial.

He was jailed for 19 years in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court, one of nine men in the Rochdale grooming gang trial convicted of offences against five girls.

Police said as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang, and that many of them had come from "chaotic", "council estate" backgrounds.

Judge Gerald Clifton said victims were treated "as though they were worthless and beyond any respect" because they were not part of the gang's community or religion.

Greater Manchester Police said at the time there was no "racial or cultural" element to the crimes.

A report later found that police had not acted despite multiple concerns being raised. It said there had been "serious multiple failures" by police and local authorities.

Ahmed's case follows a similar legal battle by two other gang members, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan.

Both were stripped of their British citizenship in 2022 after fighting a long legal battle which went all the way to the Court of Appeal.

Both invoked their human rights under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to a private and family life - to avoid deportation.

The Home Office has not said if either man had been deported.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Ahmed's horrific crimes were at the heart of the grooming gangs scandal that represents one of the darkest moments in our country's history.

"The most vulnerable people were abused and exploited at the hands of evil child rapists, and must face the full force of the law."

It said Ahmed must sign the sex offenders' register for life and any breach of his licence conditions would result in him being "immediately locked up".