Labour Pakistan deal ‘proof political class do not care about British’ | UK | News

Ministers have approved a £153m aid package for Pakistan despite Downing Street insisting it is doing “everything possible” to deport convicted grooming ring leader Shabir Ahmed, the Express understands.

The Foreign Office has revealed details of the funding, which will be distributed over the next three years as the Government continues its efforts to lure Ahmed away from the UK.

Ahmed was released from prison last month after serving 14 years for a string of sexual offenses against children, including rape, in Rochdale.

The announcement sparked criticism from opposition politicians and came as Pakistan’s Foreign Office insisted Ahmed’s crimes were a matter for the United Kingdom.

Foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said in a harsh statement that Pakistan “has no connection with this issue.”

He said Ahmed’s case was “purely an internal UK matter”.

“The person concerned is a British national who has spent his entire adult life in the United Kingdom and has been duly convicted by a British court for heinous crimes committed on British soil,” he said.

“No matter where one is born, the responsibility lies where one grows up, is nurtured, nurtured and, unfortunately, pampered.

“His heinous crimes require serious introspection rather than a search for irrelevant reasons.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said aid to Pakistan should be suspended until it accepts Ahmed and other Pakistani citizens convicted of gang crimes, the Daily Mail reported.

“All the despicable pedophile child rapists who came here from Pakistan should be deported,” he said.

“We must stop all foreign aid and issuance of new visas to Pakistani citizens until we get Ahmed and people like him back.”

Philp described the suggestion that Britain was responsible for Ahmed’s crimes as “deeply disgusting”.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: “The fact that Labor approved £153 million in aid to Pakistan while refusing to take back Shabir Ahmed tells you all you need to know. It’s no surprise that Labor overlooked this on the last day of the Parliamentary session, so no one can hold them to account.”

Reform UK also called for a halt to aid to Pakistan.

Reform UK home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said it was a scandal that Pakistan had refused to take back its criminals after receiving more than £6bn in aid from Britain over the past two decades.

He told the Daily Mail: “The fact that Labor plans to continue sending them aid is proof that the political class does not care about the British people. Reform will stop foreign aid and visas to Pakistan immediately.”

Ahmed’s release from prison last month sparked widespread public outrage.

The 73-year-old was the ringleader of a grooming ring in Greater Manchester that terrorized vulnerable girls, some as young as 12, for years.

In 2012, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for raping 30 children and was also sentenced to 19 years in prison for sexual offenses against children and human trafficking.

The court heard he led a gang that sold alcohol and drugs to girls before they were repeatedly gang raped in rooms above takeaways.

Ahmed was born in Pakistan and is believed to have arrived in the UK at the age of 14. He previously held dual British and Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of his British citizenship by the previous Conservative government and is understood to have renounced his Pakistani citizenship.

Ministers say they are prevented from deporting him because of protections contained in a 1971 law covering some Commonwealth citizens.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood this week announced plans to amend the law, saying the law “should not be used as a barrier to dismissal in cases such as Shabir Ahmed’s”.

But government officials say Ahmed cannot now be removed without Pakistan’s approval.

Downing Street said it was in high-level contact with Pakistan to ensure the ministers were deported.

A spokesman for Number 10 said: “We are in high-level contact with the Pakistani government and are doing everything possible to deport him.”

Danyal Chaudhry, a member of the foreign relations committee of the Pakistani parliament, also claimed that the responsibility lies with the UK.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, he said:[Ahmed] He grew up in England and spent his whole life there. It was the circumstances around him that made him who he was.”

Downing Street said none of the £153 million aid package would go directly to the Pakistani government, but would instead be distributed through charities and other organizations working in the country.

Because Pakistan’s tax revenues are limited, financing of basic public services relies heavily on international aid.

The Foreign Office said the funding would help build a “safer, more resilient Pakistan” while reducing “security and immigration risks to the UK”.