Vows on grooming gang leader may comeback to haunt Burnham

Aug 2, 2026

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Andy Burnham signals a tougher Labour policy on Israel in relation to Gaza, issuing a public video apology for the party’s earlier response and acknowledging the government’s delay in calling for a ceasefire. The document also examines his plan to request legal changes to enable deportation of Shabir Ahmed, leader of a Rochdale rape-gang, while considering practical barriers involving Pakistan’s refusal to accept him and resulting diplomatic and policy trade-offs for the UK.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages130

Reading Time5 h 28 min

AccessFree to download

Vows on grooming gang leader may comeback to haunt Burnham

Labour’s shift on Israel and Gaza

Deportation plans for Shabir Ahmed

Legal obstacles and Pakistan’s conditions

Diplomatic pressure vs national interest

Victims, governance by reason, and accountability

| FRIDAY 1 0 JULY 2 0 2 6 | WWW. INDEPENDENT. CO. UK | | --- | --- | DAVID MADDOXAND MILLIE COOKE Andy Burnham has indicated that under his leadership the Labour Party will adopt a tougher policy on Israel in relation to the Gaza Strip. The MP for Makerﬁeld and primeminister-in-waiting published a short video on social media in which he apologised for Labour’s response to the conﬂict in Gaza, and admitted that the government had been too slow in calling for a ceaseﬁre. He explained: “I know many people feel that atthe start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better.” Friday 10 July 2026 News / Editorial Vows on grooming gang leader may comeback to haunt Burnham akerﬁeld MP Andy Burnham last week said: “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country.” He was talking about Shabir Ahmed, the leader of a gang of rapists in Rochdale who was released from prison after 14 years. A former dual BritishPakistani national, Ahmed was deprived of his British citizenship as part of his sentence and has since renounced his Pakistani citizenship, rendering himself in eﬀect stateless. Mr Burnham said: “Victims must come ﬁrst.” Rightly so. And he pre-empted his appointment as prime minister by adding: “I will ask the home and foreign secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is oﬀ the table.” The current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has already acted on his instruction. She will ask parliament on Monday to change the law that prevents Ahmed’s deportation to Pakistan. She will seek to amend the Immigration Act 1971, which protects Commonwealth immigrants from deportation if they arrived in Britain before 1973. However, this is only the ﬁrst of the obstacles to removing Ahmed from this country. The next problem is that Pakistan, it has been reported, is refusing to accept him. Mr Burnham seemed to recognise this possibility by his reference to the foreign secretary. It would fall, in the ﬁrst instance, to whomever Mr Burnham appoints as foreign secretary to renew discussions with Pakistan about the deportation of criminals who have served their sentences. Talks about the deportation of fellow members of Ahmed’s rape gang, Qari Abdul Rauf andAdil Khan, have stalled. They were released from prison four years ago and, like Ahmed, they have renounced their Pakistani nationality. The Pakistani government refused to take them, unless Britain extradited Pakistani dissidents – which is, of course, an unacceptable demand. Islamabad is said to be applying the same conditions to the deportation of Ahmed. The question for Mr Burnham, therefore, is whether he is willing to break relations with Pakistan by applying diplomatic pressure. Britain could cancel visas, stop foreign aid and apply other sanctions – but this would threaten trade and intelligence cooperation. The incoming prime minister has made a rod for his own back by declaring that “nothing is oﬀ the table”. The British public is likely to assume that he meant it. While pragmatists in the Foreign Oﬃce will argue that going to war – metaphorically – with Pakistan is not in Britain’s national interest, public opinion is likely to regard it as a price well worth paying to get rid of Ahmed and his associates. This is an understandable emotional reaction to the horror of the rape gangs’ crimes. Mr Burnham showed empathy in sharing the universal revulsion and the demand to get this “vile” criminal“out of the country”. But as prime minister, he has to govern by reason as well as by emotion. While Mr Burnham – “like everyone” – wants just to send Ahmed far away, there is a rational argument that he is our problem more than he is Pakistan’s. He came to Britain aged 14 in 1967, so he had lived here for 45 years before his conviction for rape in 2012. The most important line of Mr Burnham’s stat

FAQs

What did Andy Burnham apologize for regarding Gaza?

He apologized for Labour’s response to the conflict in Gaza and admitted the government had been too slow in calling for a ceasefire, saying the response had not been good enough.

Why is deporting Shabir Ahmed complicated?

The document explains that the UK must change the law to permit deportation, and that Pakistan has reportedly refused to accept him under existing conditions.

What does the document say is needed beyond removing Ahmed?

It argues that victims must be provided full information about where abusers are and what protections are in place, not just removal.

Aug 2, 2026

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