Tory MP Katie Lam writes for GB News after putting forward an urgent question in the House of Commons
Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, is now back on the streets.
Ahmed committed some of the most horrific crimes imaginable, subjecting his victims to abuse, trafficking, and rape.
As is so often the case, the perpetrators in Rochdale were all men from Pakistan, or of Pakistani heritage, and their victims were white working-class girls.
In 2012, Ahmed was convicted of thirty counts of child rape, along with nine other members of the Rochdale gang.
He was stripped of his British citizenship and was supposed to serve 22 years behind bars.
And, despite the fact that Ahmed’s victims were promised that he’d be deported to Pakistan upon release, the Government now says that he can’t be removed after all, because of a loophole in a decades-old piece of immigration law.
Under the 1971 Immigration Act, citizens of Commonwealth countries – like Pakistan – can’t be deported if they arrived here after 1973, and have since lived in Britain for more than five years.
But fortunately, under our system, Parliament can change any law at any time – that’s what parliamentary sovereignty means.
If the Government wanted to change the law, and deport Ahmed back to Pakistan, they could.
In fact, the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, has already put an amendment together which the Government could use.
It would change the law, close the loophole, and make sure that Ahmed was removed to Pakistan.
The Conservatives have offered their support in pushing that change through.
But when I set all of this out for Labour’s Border Security Minister, Alex Norris, he came back with the usual Government waffle.
He said that “all options” are on the table and that the Government would “look closely” at Chris Philp’s amendment.
But he wouldn’t answer a straight question about whether the Government would change the law – and he wouldn’t commit to deporting Shabir Ahmed.
As we’ve seen time and time again, despite a large majority, this Government is incredibly weak.
They can be made to do the right thing when the public makes their frustrations heard – just look at their U-turn on holding a national inquiry into the grooming gangs.
But the fact that they haven’t already changed the law to deport Ahmed, when they have all the tools they need, is telling.
At best, this is a Government which is so addicted to procedure that they’re incapable of acting, and especially acting quickly.
At worst, this is a Government which doesn’t take the British people’s concerns about safety or justice seriously, and only does the right thing when it’s forced to.
Either way, we’ll keep fighting in Parliament to get Shabir Ahmed deported, as well as every other foreign grooming gang offender.
Keeping these men off our streets is the very least that we can do.
