Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, will announce on Monday how she plans to change the law so that Shabir Ahmed can be deported BBC. Ahmed was the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang.

Ahmed is 73 years old. In 2012, he was jailed for 22 years for sexually abusing children, including rape. He was released from prison last week after serving 14 years Sky News. The children he abused called him "Daddy" BBC.

Here's the legal problem. Ahmed used to have both British and Pakistani nationality. After his conviction, the Home Office took away his British citizenship. Normally, that would mean he could be deported as a foreign national. But there is a law from 1971 that protects Commonwealth citizens — people from countries in the Commonwealth — if they arrived in Britain before 1973 and have lived here for at least five years BBC. Ahmed meets those conditions, so he is protected. The government wants to change this law.

Since his release, Ahmed lives in a staffed house where staff watch him 24 hours a day. He also wears an electronic tag that tracks where he goes with GPS. The government has said that if he breaks any rules of his release, he will go back to prison BBC. Some of the people he abused have said they feel unsafe now that he is out BBC.

Pressure to act quickly

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, called for Ahmed to be deported before he was released Telegraph. By 2 July, the BBC reported the government was "looking at every route" to remove him BBC. By then, government officials were already talking to officials in Pakistan about whether he could be sent back there BBC.

Parliament acted quickly too. The House of Commons held a debate on "Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation" on 6 July Hansard — before Mahmood's statement on Monday. This suggests the government was responding to pressure from MPs and the public, not leading the way itself.

The Opposition also got involved. Chris Philp, the Conservative opposition's spokesman on crime, said he would propose his own changes to whatever bill the government brings forward BBC BBC. This signals that the Conservatives think the government's plan is either not broad enough or not fast enough.

Two big obstacles

The government must overcome two main hurdles. First, it needs to change UK law. But it faces a choice: it could write a very narrow law that applies only to Ahmed's situation, which would be quicker. Or it could rewrite the whole Commonwealth protection rule, which would apply to other cases but take longer because the House of Lords and lawyers would want to examine it more carefully.

Second, and perhaps harder: Pakistan must agree to take Ahmed back. Changing British law alone is not enough. The Pakistani government has to accept him, and the practical arrangements for sending him there need to be worked out. Officials from both countries started talking in early July, but no agreement has been announced.