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The BBC's Dominic Casciani describes the scene at RAF Northolt as the flight takes off
Radical cleric Abu Qatada has arrived in Jordan to face terrorism charges after being deported from the UK.
His plane left RAF Northolt at 02:46 BST to take him to his home country, which he has not visited in 20 years.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "delighted" that his removal had been achieved.
Abu Qatada was first arrested over alleged terror connections in 2001 and the UK has been battling to deport him for eight years.
The Palestinian-Jordanian cleric's deportation was finally able to proceed after the UK and Jordan signed a treaty agreeing that evidence obtained through torture would not be used against him.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she was glad that the government's determination to remove him had been "vindicated".
"This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country," she said.
She added that she wanted to streamline such deportation processes in future.
"I am also clear that we need to make sense of our human rights laws and remove the many layers of appeals available to foreign nationals we want to deport.
"We are taking steps - including through the new Immigration Bill - to put this right."
Abu Qatada was accompanied on the flight of around five hours by six people from Jordan, comprising three security officials, a psychologist, a medical examiner and his Jordanian lawyer, the BBC understands.
The 53-year-old had been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, from where a convoy of three police vehicles left at midnight.
A family friend who went with Abu Qatada's relatives to Jordan's Marka military airport told BBC Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell that he was taken straight to the state security court, suggesting legal proceedings against him have begun.
The cleric - who did not get to see his family - is expected to be taken to either Juwaida or Muwaqqar prison, our correspondent said.
BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani said Home Office officials were "incredibly relieved" after "one of the most tense weeks in the department's recent history".
"They were so concerned about the possibility that the cleric could change his mind at the last minute that they were leaving nothing to chance."
At exactly 2.46 this morning, the battle to banish Abu Qatada ended with the roar of jet engines over north-west London, as his deportation flight left over our heads.
When it came finally to leave, there was no fuss. There was no last minute legal appeal, no hitch. Nobody had to call another crisis meeting at the Home Office. In fact, Abu Qatada looked relaxed and calm. He walked freely to the plane and boarded with British officials and the door was closed.
As the plane began to taxi, the preacher glanced out of the window towards the terminal building and that was it.
For Abu Qatada, this was the start of his uncertain journey home after 20 years in the UK. But the deportation was also an enormous victory for the British government. There has never been a legal battle like this - and no one in politics ever wants to have it again.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast later, Mrs May said she had been provided with updates on the deportation throughout the night.
She said she had been "as frustrated as the public" about the estimated £1.7m cost and length of time it had taken to remove Abu Qatada, but that people would welcome the end result.
She said she did not have any concerns about the treatment Abu Qatada would face when he arrived in Jordan.
She said: "The treaty we've signed ensures that there are proper processes of exchange of evidence and will insure the treatment of Abu Qatada and others deported to Jordan."
Mrs May said she hoped to reduce the number of appeals open to people fighting to stay in the country and to look at Britain's relationship with the European Court of Human Rights.
She said "nothing is off the table" when it comes to negotiating with Europe.
Mr Cameron criticised a "caravan of lawyers" over the Abu Qatada case, adding that it had "made my blood boil that this man who has no right to be in our country, who is a threat to our country and that it took so long and it was so difficult to deport him, but we've done it, he is back in Jordan that is excellent news."
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Theresa May: "We need to ensure that in the future we can deport people more quickly"
The British authorities told Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman in 2005 that he would be deported to Jordan, where he had been convicted in his absence of alleged involvement in a plot to target Americans and Israeli tourists during the country's millennium celebrations.
He lost his appeal against deportation at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) in February 2007.
But he then appealed to higher courts on the grounds that evidence extracted through torture would be used against him in Jordan, where he faces a retrial for plotting bomb attacks.
That legal battle continued until May this year, when the cleric accepted that his right to a fair trial there was protected by the new treaty between Jordan and the UK.
He agreed to drop his legal challenge, paving the way for his deportation.
Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the deportation and backed Mrs May's call for a more streamlined process in future.
She said: "The home secretary has been right to get further guarantees from Jordan and we should welcome the series of agreements from the Jordanian government too.
"We must ensure that delays like this do not last for so long in future and that the system is reformed to make it faster."
Keith Vaz, chairman of Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, questioned why the government had not started work on a treaty with Jordan at an earlier stage in the process.
"The home secretary's legal advisers will have questions to answer as to why they didn't conceive of this scheme earlier which would have prevented a cost to the taxpayer of £1.7m."
The security problem Jordan doesn't need?
Abu Qatada case has cost UK £1.7m
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