'What hope do we have!?' Zia Yusuf despairs over failure to deport ringleader of Rochdale grooming gang​

Zia Yusuf has expressed his outrage at "broken Britain" after the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang has been released early from prison, avoiding deportation to Pakistan.

Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK Home Affairs spokesman questioned "what hope we have" after Shabir Ahmed walked free from prison today, failing to serve his full sentence.

Ahmed, 73, has walked free from prison early after being handed a 19-year sentence for the rape and sexual abuse of young girls in 2012.

Ahmed, 73, is returning to Britain's streets after avoiding deportation due to a legal loophole. He falls under a provision in the Immigration Act 1971 that exempts Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 from removal - despite having his British citizenship revoked.

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Reacting to the case, Mr Yusuf told GB News that it is "difficult to get your head around how screwed up" the situation is.

He said: "There are still politicians in the Tory Party and the Labour Party continue to claim that Britain isn't broken, and yet the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang has just been released from jail.

"It's difficult to even get your head around how screwed up this is."

Mr Yusuf questioned why Ahmed was released early from prison "without even serving his sentence".

He argued: "A Rochdale grooming gang ringleader is being released from jail without even serving his sentence. Which should, of course, have been a lot longer.

"He should never have been allowed to come out of jail. This is a man who was a ringleader in the industrial-scale rape of white working-class girls."

Mr Yusuf revealed that one of Ahmed's victims "was not informed" of the early release of her perpetrator.

He told GB News: "I was just reading the account of one of his victims, Amber, who's very upset.

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"Do you know which official informed her that her rapist was going to be released? Nobody. Nobody did. Nobody told her. It makes my blood boil."

Mr Yusuf hit out at the Government's failure to deport foreign nationals, fuming: "What hope do we have as a country if we cannot even deport a foreign national who was a ringleader in the Rochdale grooming gang?

"What have we got of deporting the north of one million people in this country? Britain is utterly, utterly broken."

He made clear that the Government of Britain is "sovereign" and so can change the law if it needs to.

He said: "Parliament is sovereign and we seem to have lost sight of this in this country, a Government, especially one with the size of the majority that Labour has, can absolutely change the law and it can change the law retrospectively. There is no problem in doing that at all.

"The only thing that I care about, the only thing Reform cares about is that this monster is actually deported from the shores. He needs to be removed from this country."

Challenging Makerfield MP Andy Burnham's claims that he will take action to ensure Ahmed is deported, Mr Yusuf concluded: "Andy Burnham has said he's going to do whatever it takes to get this man deported.

"We'll be holding him to account for that. Don't worry. Let's see if he's actually got the trousers to stick to his word."

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