Dominic Cummings has said the data leak which resulted in an £850million secret relocation scheme and an unprecedented gagging order was “not even close to the worst data breach” under previous governments. The political strategist who served former prime minister Boris Johnson as chief adviser claimed the case is not event the “most stupid” one involving Afghans, the Ministry of Defence and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In comments posted on social media on Wednesday (July 16), Mr Cummings said the data breach wasn’t the worst leak between 2019 and 2024. He urged MPs to ask about the case, adding that if they want to hold a hearing he would come along with others “from the deep state” to “expose the farce”. He said there are even more “mental” cases which have also been classified to hide what he said were effects of the ECHR.
Mr Cummings reminded his social media followers the Afghans who are already in the UK will be able to claim their families can come under the ECHR‘s right to family life.
The government has been bringing to the UK Afghans on the leaked list who were judged to be most at risk. To date, some 4,500 people — 900 applicants and about 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the program.
qAbout 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time a relocation scheme closes, at a cost of £850million. In all, about 36,000 Afghans have been resettled in the UK since 2021.
The current saga was triggered by the chaotic Western exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban, ousted from power 20 years earlier, swept across the country, seized Kabul and reimposed their strict version of Islamic law.
Afghans who had worked with Western forces — as fixers, translators and in other roles — or who had served in the internationally backed Afghan army were at risk of retribution.
Britain set up a program, known as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, or ARAP, to bring some to the UK.
In February 2022, a defence official emailed a spreadsheet containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 ARAP applicants to someone outside the MoD. The Government said the individual thought they were sending a list of about 150 names, not the whole set.
The Government only became aware of the leak when a portion of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list.
The leak sparked alarm among British officials who feared as many as 100,000 people were in danger when family numbers of the named individuals were added. The then-Conservative government sought a court order barring publication of the list.
A judge granted a sweeping order known as a super injunction, which barred anyone from revealing not only information about the leak but the existence of the injunction itself.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Wednesday that he sought the legal order to gain “time and space” to deal with the leak, to find out whether the Taliban had it and to protect those at risk.
Mr Wallace said he asked for an ordinary injunction — not a super injunction — for a period of four months. The gag order remained in place for almost two years.
In January, the current Government ordered a review by a former senior civil servant. They found little evidence the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban.
The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces and is more concerned with current threats to its authority.
Given those findings, the Government dropped its support for the super injunction. The injunction was lifted in court on Tuesday (July 15) and minutes later Defence Secretary John Healey stood in the House of Commons to make the saga public for the first time.
Mr Healey said the secret settlement route was being closed, but acknowledged on Wednesday that “the story is just beginning” and many questions remain unanswered.