The Labour government has approved a £153 million aid package for Pakistan, sparking a political row as ministers face mounting pressure to secure the deportation of convicted child sex offender Shabir Ahmed. The Foreign Office released details of the funding, to be distributed over three years, even as Downing Street insists it is doing "everything possible" to remove Ahmed from the UK.
Shabir Ahmed's release and public anger
Ahmed, 73, was released from prison last month after serving 14 years for a string of child sex offences, including rape, committed in Rochdale. He was the ringleader of a grooming gang that terrorised vulnerable girls, some as young as 12, in Greater Manchester for years. In 2012, he was jailed for 22 years for 30 child rape offences and received a separate 19-year sentence for child sex offences and trafficking. The court heard he led a gang that plied girls with alcohol and drugs before they were repeatedly gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops.
His release triggered widespread public anger, with many demanding his deportation. Ahmed was born in Pakistan and arrived in the UK at age 14. He previously held dual British and Pakistani nationality but was stripped of his British nationality by the previous Conservative government and is understood to have renounced his Pakistani nationality. Ministers say they were prevented from deporting him due to protections in a 1971 law covering certain Commonwealth citizens.
Political backlash and calls to suspend aid
The aid announcement drew sharp criticism from opposition politicians. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called for aid to Pakistan to be suspended until it agrees to accept Ahmed and other Pakistani nationals convicted of grooming gang offences. "Vile paedophile child rapists who came here from Pakistan should all be deported back," he said. "We should stop all overseas aid and issuance of new visas for Pakistani citizens until they take Ahmed and those like him back." Philp described the suggestion that Britain was responsible for Ahmed's crimes as "deeply repugnant."
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: "The fact Labour have approved £153 million aid for Pakistan when they are refusing to take back Shabir Ahmed tells you all you need to know. No surprise that Labour slipped this out on the last day of this session of Parliament – so nobody can hold them to account." Reform UK also called for aid to Pakistan to be halted. Party home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said it was a scandal that Pakistan was refusing to take back its criminals after receiving more than £6 billion in British aid over the past two decades. "The fact Labour plans to continue to send them aid is proof the political class do not care about the British people," he told the Daily Mail. "Reform will stop foreign aid and visas issued to Pakistan immediately."
Pakistan's response and UK government actions
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry insisted Ahmed's crimes were a matter for the UK. Spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan had "no connection whatsoever with this matter" and that Ahmed's case was "entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom." He added: "The individual concerned is a British national who spent his entire adult life in the UK and was duly convicted by a British court for reprehensible offences committed on British soil. Regardless of where he was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed, and, unfortunately, spoiled. His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes."
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to amend the 1971 legislation, saying it "should not be used as a bar against removal in cases like that of Shabir Ahmed." However, government officials say Ahmed cannot currently be removed without Pakistan's agreement. Downing Street said ministers were engaging with Pakistan at a senior level to secure his deportation. A Number 10 spokesman said: "We are engaging with the Pakistan government at a senior level, doing everything possible to deport him." Danyal Chaudhry, a member of Pakistan's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, suggested responsibility lay with the UK, telling BBC Radio 4's World at One: "He was raised in the UK, spent his entire life there. What made him the person he was, was the circumstances around him."
Downing Street said none of the £153 million aid package would go directly to the Pakistani government but instead would be distributed through charities and other organisations. The Foreign Office said the funding would help build a "safer, more resilient Pakistan" while reducing "security and migration risks to the UK."
