Former Conservative ministers are scrambling to defend their records as pressure mounts over a catastrophic Afghan data leak that triggered an unprecedented superinjunction and an £850 million secret relocation scheme. The breach saw a defence official release details of nearly 19,000 people seeking to flee Kabul in 2022.
Members of the previous administration are now distancing themselves from the handling of the crisis. Shadow justice secretary and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he first learned of the data breach only after a legal gagging order had been imposed the following year.
Ministers distance themselves from crisis
Former home secretary Suella Braverman said there is "much more that needs to be said about the conduct of the MoD (Ministry of Defence), both ministers and officials". She insisted she was not involved in the superinjunction decision that kept the scandal secret for almost two years.
Ex-veterans minister Johnny Mercer claimed he had "receipts" regarding the previous government's actions but dismissed accusations that he failed to grasp the scale of the crisis. "I know who is covering their tracks, and who has the courage to be honest," he said, adding: "I would caution those who might attempt to rewrite history."
Secret scheme costs soar
Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of the £850 million scheme established after the leak. The programme was kept secret under a superinjunction imposed in 2023, which was only lifted on Tuesday this week.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir Starmer (Labour) insisted there would be scrutiny of the decision. He told MPs: "Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen."
Truss calls it 'huge betrayal'
Former prime minister Liz Truss, who was foreign secretary when the breach occurred in February 2022, said she was "shocked" by the "cover-up". She described the revelations as pointing to a "huge betrayal of public trust" and demanded that "those responsible in both governments and the bureaucracy need to be held to account".
Mercer defended his record, saying: "I've spilt my own blood fighting for a better Afghanistan, lost friends, fought to get operators out of the country and away from the Taliban." He said he had visited hundreds of resettled families and hotels in the UK under direct commission from the previous prime minister.
Jenrick reveals opposition to scheme
Jenrick said he had "strongly opposed plans to bring over" thousands of Afghan nationals during "internal government discussions in the short period before my resignation" in December 2023. He claimed he was bound by the Official Secrets Act and parliamentary privilege limitations.
The shadow justice secretary called the secret scheme "a complete disaster" and said the previous government "made serious mistakes". However, he argued that "thousands more (Afghan people) have come since Labour came to power".
Parliamentary inquiry planned
The Commons Defence Committee will set out plans for an inquiry immediately after the parliamentary recess in September. The investigation will examine how a dataset of 18,714 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme was released by a defence official in February 2022.
The Ministry of Defence only discovered the blunder when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023. A superinjunction was then granted at the High Court to prevent the Taliban from learning about the leak.
Wallace defends injunction decision
Then-defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said he had applied for a four-month standard injunction shortly before leaving office. When Grant Shapps took the role on 1 September 2023, the government was granted a superinjunction, though Shapps has not yet publicly commented on the revelations.
Wallace insisted he makes "no apology" for applying for the initial injunction, saying it was motivated by protecting people in Afghanistan whose safety was at risk. The leak led to the creation of the secret Afghanistan Response Route in April 2024.
Massive financial impact revealed
The scheme has cost about £400 million so far, with a projected final cost of about £850 million. A total of about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the end of the programme.
The official responsible for the email error was moved to a new role but not dismissed. The superinjunction remained in place for almost two years, covering both Labour and Conservative governments.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised on behalf of the Conservatives for the leak, telling LBC: "On behalf of the government and on behalf of the British people, yes, because somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there … and we are sorry for that."
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
