UK in talks with Pakistan about deporting grooming gang leader

UK in talks with Pakistan about deporting grooming gang leaderImage source, GMPImage caption, Shabir Ahmed was the head of a gang which abused girls as young as 12 ByJoshua NevettPolitical reporterPublished20 minutes agoUK government officials are in talks with Pakistan about the possibility of deporting a Rochdale grooming gang ringleader to the country.Shabir Ahmed was released from jail this week, after being convicted in 2012 for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls.Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of his UK passport following his conviction.But this week his victims were told that Ahmed could not be deported to Pakistan because of a 55-year-old law that bars his removal.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has asked the home secretary to review the case following calls for the law to be changed to allow Ahmed to be removed from the UK.Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to replace Sir Keir as prime minister this month, was among those calling for Ahmed to be deported.When asked about the government's progress on the case, a No 10 spokesperson said: "We have raised this issue with our counterparts in Islamabad and we are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders, and we're clear that 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 - but we are currently working across government to explore all possible options in this case."The PM's spokesperson said while the UK would "do everything in our power to remove" Ahmed, they stressed this was "clearly a complex case with implications beyond this specific incident".The BBC understands Ahmed left prison on Thursday and is now in 24-hour staffed accommodation, wearing a GPS electronically monitored tag.The Home Office has said any breach of Ahmed's strict li...