McMahon said the government wanted to “close the loophole” in the 1971 act, but said legal advice was needed to say whether any change could apply retrospectively and therefore allow Ahmed to be deported.
The BBC understands the government is considering whether the 1971 law could be changed through an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the BBC he was planning to lay his own amendment to the bill to remove the provisions preventing Ahmed’s removal.
He said McMahon and Waugh had “both agreed with me that the law needs to change”.
Ahmed was the ringleader of a group of nine men who systematically groomed and sexually abused teenage girls in Rochdale and Oldham.
The men offered the girls food and cigarettes, and later plied them with alcohol before repeatedly raping them often in flats above take-away restaurants.
One survivor, identified as ‘Ruby’ to maintain her legal right to anonymity, told BBC Newsnight that she was: “Scared for my safety and my kids’ safety.”
“The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, so even if he’s not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe.”
Source:
www.bbc.co.uk
