Race hate cleric Faisal deported

He left Gatwick for Jamaica at 1200 BST, accompanied by two police escorts and an immigration officer.

Al-Faisal, who is of Jamaican origin, lost his appeal against deportation.

He was jailed in 2003 for soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus. London bomber Germaine Lindsay was "strongly influenced" by him, John Reid said.

3,000 deported

In a statement on Friday, Mr Reid said he was pleased that al-Faisal, 43, had been removed and excluded from the UK.

He said: "We are committed to protecting the public and have made it clear that foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality and break our laws can expect to be deported after they have served a prison sentence.

"We will not tolerate those who seek to spread hate and fear in our communities."

He added: "We will continue to prioritise the deportation of foreign national prisoners, having removed over 3,000 in the last year, as well as others whose presence in this country is non-conducive to the public good."

Al-Faisal's trial heard he spent years travelling the UK preaching racial hatred urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and westerners.

Profile: Germaine Lindsay

Profile: Abdullah al-Faisal

He was found guilty of three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans and Hindus and two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred.

Last year Mr Reid told MPs that al-Faisal had influenced Jamaican-born Briton Lindsay, 19, who was responsible for the blast at King's Cross that killed 27 people.

Taped recordings of al-Faisal's lectures, which Lindsay listened to, were sold at specialist Islamic bookshops.

The tapes formed the basis of the prosecution's case in the 2003 Old Bailey trial of the Muslim convert, from Stratford, east London.

Al-Faisal was deported after reaching the parole date in his sentence and returns to Jamaica more than 20 years after he left.

He was born into a Christian family and christened Trevor William Forrest.