Shabana Mahmood offered deportation solution to end conundrum over grooming gang ringleader

Shabana Mahmood has been offered a solution to deport Pakistani-born Rochdale grooming gang ringleader by the Conservatives.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp urged his counterpart to adopt a proposed amendment to the Immigration Act 1971 and the UK Border Act 2007 as emergency legislation in order to deport child rapist Shabir Ahmed.

Ahmed, who was was released last week after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence, cannot be deported due laws which prevents the removal of Commonwealth citizens - despite being stripped of his British citizenship in 2016.

Mr Philp said the removal of the rapist will serve as a test to Andy Burnham and if he is "serious about deporting foreign criminals, adding that the Makerfield MP should "immediately accept" the Tories' proposal.

The Shadow Home Secretary told the Telegraph: "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.

"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."

The Tories would repeal two sections within the Immigration Act 1971 which prevents Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973 and have lived in Britain for more than five years from being deported.

The Conservatives would also repeal a section within the UK Borders Act 2007 which repeats the same exemption, with Mr Philp's amendment stipulating that it would be applied retrospectively.

James Murray, Health Secretary, told GB News there was a "real sense of urgency" within Government to deport Ahmed, but refused to detail the "exact mechanisms" to be used by Ms Mahmood.

Pakistan has also refused to take back Ahmed - who is said to have ripped up his passport and abandoned his Pakistani citizenship.

Britain has disputed his claims, but the Pakistani Government has said its official records and databases show that he is not a Pakistani citizen.

Mr Philp told GB News last week the Government must go further than just changing the Immigration Act and UK Border Act, calling for Britain to leave the European Court of Human Rights and to impose sanctions on countries which do not accept the return of foreign offenders.

He told GB News: "We also need these countries like Pakistan to accept back their own citizens. Now, of course, if a British citizen commits a criminal offence somewhere else or is in another country illegally, of course we take back our own citizens.

"So we expect other countries like Pakistan to do the same when the boot is on the other foot. And if they don't do that, we should be cutting all foreign aid to those countries that don't accept back their own citizens.

"And we should be imposing what are called visa sanctions, which means if there's a country that doesn't accept back their own citizens, if they commit a crime in Britain or if they're illegally in Britain, then we should ultimately stop issuing visas for other citizens of that other country to come into the UK, because how can we accept people to come in if we can't remove them?"

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, has also called for the UK to pause overseas aid and visas to Pakistan.

"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," he said.

A Number 10 spokesman told GB News it is "committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders", noting that it has raised the issue with Islamabad.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders and are clear they should have no place in this country. As previous governments have found, this necessarily involves the agreement of the receiving country, which has not always been possible in some countries.

"But we are currently working with colleagues across Government to explore all possible options to deport this vile criminal."