The British government has started the process of changing the law that until now prevented convicted grooming gang leader Shabbir Ahmed from being deported to Pakistan.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced in Parliament on Monday that the government would amend the Immigration Act 1971 to remove legal protections for serious criminals like Ahmed.Ahmed, who was jailed in 2012 for multiple rapes and sexual crimes against young girls, was recently released after serving a prison sentence. His case was widely criticized when it emerged that he could not be deported due to a 1971 law that protects certain Commonwealth citizens who came to Britain before 1973.Ahmed was the leader of a gang of nine who groomed and sexually exploited teenage girls. The group reportedly gained the trust of the victims by offering them food and cigarettes before plying them with alcohol and sexually assaulting them.Speaking in the House of Commons, Mahmood said she was taking action in response to the widely reported case of “disgusting beauty gang leader Shabbir Ahmed”.“Our amendment will give the Home Secretary new powers to apply section 7 of the Immigration Act 1971 to serious criminals,” Mahmood told MPs.“This provides protection for long-term UK residents but, clearly, should not act as a barrier against removal in cases like Shabbir Ahmed’s.“The limits of this power would be linked to the power to deprive citizenship, which applies only in cases of exceptional gravity,” he said.Mahmood, whose family has South Asian roots, acknowledged that changing the law alone would not ensure Ahmed’s deportation.According to reports, Pakistan has refused to accept Ahmed and there have been discussions between the two countries reportedly linking his return to the extradition of Pakistani dissidents living in Britain.“It is important to note that this does not guarantee their expulsion from this country. As the opposition (Conservative Party) well knows from experience,” Mahmood said in parliament.“The Foreign Secretary (Yvette Cooper) and I are continuing to work on all avenues for deportation. I know everyone here’s thoughts are with the victims and survivors of this despicable criminal,” she said.The proposed amendments are part of a wider immigration and asylum bill, which the government says aims to make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees while speeding up the removal of people living in the country illegally.Ahmed is currently living in monitored housing and is being tracked with a GPS tag after his release from prison.The proposal to deport him has received support from all political parties.The opposition Conservative Party has called for swift action against the man it described as a “despicable gang rapist who should be deported back to Pakistan”.“I would only ask the Home Secretary not to do this by amending this Bill, which will probably take a year or more to reach the statute book. I hope she will consider doing this through emergency legislation in September, which could be completed in a few weeks,” Shadow Home Secretary Chris Phillips said in Parliament.Other MPs also urged the government to take swift action against the man they described as an “evil and despicable” criminal whose abuse of young girls in Oldham and Rochdale shocked communities across northern England.“The fact is: he has already been stripped of his British citizenship. Oldham MP Jim McMahon said, “They have no right to be here, except through a loophole in the Immigration Act 1971, which will now be closed because of the actions of our Home Secretary.”Rochdale MP Paul Waugh demanded, “I know this is just the beginning, and even once the law is changed, Pakistan can say it will refuse to take this man back. Whatever diplomatic barriers there are, they must be challenged and every possible way forward must be explored.”Andy Burnham, who is expected to replace Keir Starmer as Britain’s next prime minister, has also supported Ahmed’s deportation. Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, has been one of the strongest voices calling for action.He recently said, “Like everyone, I want this despicable criminal out of the country. The victims must come first. I would ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider that nothing is off the table.”Ahmed, 73, holds both British and Pakistani citizenships and was known as “Daddy” by the victims during the trial. When he was sentenced to 22 years in prison he was stripped of his British citizenship.However, a letter from the Probation Service informing the victim of his release revealed that under the Immigration Act 1971, Commonwealth citizens who came to the UK before 1973 and lived there for at least five years cannot be deported.According to reports, the British government is also trying to deport two other convicted members of the gang, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, who were stripped of their British citizenship in 2022. Both men have challenged their deportation by relying on the European Convention on Human Rights provision protecting the right to family life.Mahmoud’s bill also includes measures to tighten the use of such appeals by convicted criminals seeking to halt their deportation.