By Emeka Blast 
Labour Leader Starmer Seeks Clarification on Afghan Leak from Tory Ministers
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called out former Conservative ministers, demanding they answer “serious questions” over a catastrophic Ministry of Defence (MoD) data breach that compromised the personal details of nearly 19,000 Afghans who sought to flee the Taliban. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer slammed the previous government’s handling of the February 2022 leak, which led to a secret £850 million relocation scheme, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), and an unprecedented super-injunction to conceal the blunder.
The breach, caused by a defence official emailing sensitive data outside secure systems, exposed 18,714 applicants of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), potentially endangering up to 100,000 individuals, including family members, to Taliban reprisals. The MoD only discovered the error in August 2023 when excerpts appeared on a Facebook group, prompting a High Court super-injunction to block reporting. The ARR, launched in April 2022024, has relocated 4,500 Afghans to the UK at a cost of £400 million so far, with 6,900 expected by the scheme’s end.
Starmer accused the Tories of “total incompetence,” highlighting “a major data breach, a super-injunction, and a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions.” He welcomed a planned Commons Defence Committee inquiry, urging former ministers to face scrutiny. Defence Secretary John Healey, who revealed the scheme’s details on Tuesday after the super-injunction was lifted, called the situation “deeply uncomfortable” but defended security checks on arrivals, rejecting claims by Reform UK’s Nigel Farage that offenders were admitted.
Former Tory Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace defended seeking an initial four-month injunction, insisting it was to protect Afghans from Taliban violence, not a cover-up. However, he was unaware why it was escalated to a super-injunction under his successor, Grant Shapps. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch apologized for the leak, stating, “Somebody made a terrible mistake.” Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, revealing internal Tory splits, condemned the super-injunction and ARR, calling for further Commons debate.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle warned the handling raised “significant constitutional issues,” while Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey backed a potential public inquiry. The Information Commissioner’s Office faces pressure to investigate why no one was sacked, with the official responsible merely reassigned. A Taliban official claimed to The Telegraph that they accessed the list in 2022, raising fears for the 600 Afghan soldiers and 1,800 family members still in Afghanistan.
