Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has set a law change in motion in the UK Parliament that will remove the legal hurdle blocking the deportation of a grooming gang ringleader to Pakistan. 

The case of Shabir Ahmed, jailed in 2012 on multiple charges of rape and sexual offences against young girls and recently released from prison, triggered an outcry when it emerged that the Pakistani man is protected under a 1971 law forbidding the removal of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK over 50 years ago.