Sir Keir Starmer was reportedly given a chance to be briefed two years ago on the scandal of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) data breach and secret Afghan immigration plan but the offer was ‘turned down’. The PM has been vociferous in his condemnation of the Conservatives over the exposed bungle which spawned an £850 million secret relocation scheme and an unprecedented legal gagging order.
The Labour leader said Tory ex-ministers have “serious questions to answer” about the breach which led to thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of a scheme set up after the data leak, which was kept secret as the result of a superinjunction imposed in 2023 which was only lifted on Tuesday. Downing Street has briefed that current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was offered a security briefing in March on the issue.
But new claims have emerged tonight that Sir Keir, who is battling turmoil within his own party, was also part of a close network of senior opposition figures to be offered an insight into the ongoing secret relocation of thousands of Afghans to Britain.
But writing on X tonight (Weds), Financial Times Whitehall Editor Lucy Fisher posted: “Curious that No 10 briefed today that Kemi Badenoch, as leader of opposition, turned down briefing on Afghan data leak
“When Labour were in opposition, a briefing on same data breach was offered to Keir Starmer in December 2023… and John Healey turned it down on his behalf.”
Ms Fisher supported her claim by adding court documents showed “a senior MoD official told High Court in Jan 2024 that James Heappey briefed Healey on leak in Dec 2023”.
She wrote that the official told the court: “Shadow Def Sec shared that he did not believe the Leader of the Opposition needed briefing at that time and would advise if this view changes at a later date.”
A dataset of 18,714 who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) was released in February 2022 by a defence official who emailed a file outside authorised government systems. The Arap was established to help Afghans who had worked with the British military prior to the distastrous US and UK withdrawal from the capital Kabul in August 2021.
The MoD only became aware of the blunder when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023, and a superinjunction was granted at the High Court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak.
Then defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said he had applied for a four-month standard injunction shortly before leaving office but on September 1 2023, when Grant Shapps took the role, the Government was given a superinjunction.
Sir Ben said he did now know why the superinjunction was granted “but nevertheless, I think the point here is I took a decision that the most important priority was to protect those people who could have been or were exposed by this data leak in Afghanistan, living amongst the Taliban who had no regard for their safety, or indeed potentially could torture them or murder them”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
The leak led to the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024.
The scheme is understood to have cost around £400 million so far, with a projected final cost of about £850 million.
A total of around 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme.