STEPHEN GLOVER: Rather than sending flunkies to make peace, Harry should say sorry in person to his father for what he's done
The purpose, of course, was good – to build bridges within the fractured Royal Family, and ultimately to effect a reconciliation between Harry and Charles.
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Times
11 minutes ago
- Times
Afghan leak: Judge decries ‘scrutiny vacuum' as he lifts gag order — live
The Ministry of Defence feared that if knowledge of the dataset became public then the Taliban would find it and be able to start working through what one activist described as a 'kill list'. Conservative ministers secured a superinjunction in the High Court on September 1, 2023, which prevented anyone reporting the incident or that a court order even existed. When Labour came to power in July 2024 they continued to argue it should remain in place and it was not until January this year that John Healey, the defence secretary, ordered a review of the policy. Afghans who were on the 'kill list' were not told that their lives may be at risk despite concerns the Taliban could suddenly come into possession of the list. At about 10am on Thursday January 25, 2024, I called a senior member of the Ministry of Defence press office, whom I had known for years, to tell them I was aware of a data leak. It had put lives at risk and it was the subject of a superinjunction, I said. I told him I had known about the matters for some time and wanted to join the court proceedings. I did not realise at the time that everything I said during that initial phone call would be written down and submitted to the High Court. It would form part of a 1,568-page bundle of evidence documenting the longest ever superinjunction and the only to be sought by a government. I had no idea of the magnitude of what I was dealing with. • Read in full: Our defence editor recounts being silenced by government Tens of thousands of Afghans have begun receiving an email from the UK government telling them their data has been breached. In the email, seen by The Times, they are warned their information was sent outside 'secure systems' and may have been 'compromised'. 'We understand this news may be concerning,' it says. The email urges the Afghans to 'exercise caution and not take phone calls or respond to messages or emails from unknown contacts'. It also urges Afghans not to travel to third countries without a valid passport and visa. 'If you do so, you will be putting yourself at risk on the journey, and you may face the risk of being deported back to Afghanistan,' it says. One activist told The Times her phone was 'blowing up' with messages from concerned Afghans. Alarm bells rang in the summer of 2023 when an activist helping Afghans who had served with UK forces during the war reached out to a defence minister. It was 9.57am on Tuesday, August 15. 'Person A', as she later became known in court documents, was panicking. She had become aware of a massive data breach involving tens of thousands of Afghans. What the government did next — and how quickly — was a matter of life and death. • Read in full: MoD evacuates Afghans — without them knowing why Successive governments had tried to stop the public and parliament from knowing about the data breach in the Ministry of Defence, which it had said put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of torture and death. The Afghans, some of whom had served alongside UK forces during the war, had applied for sanctuary in the UK because of fears they could be targeted by the Taliban. But a database containing their confidential information, including their contact details and names of their family members was sent by a British soldier to Afghans already in the UK who then passed it on to individuals in Afghanistan. One of those who received the dataset threatened to post its contents in a Facebook group 18 months later. The British military is responsible for a data leak that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of death — and successive governments have spent years fighting to keep it secret using an unprecedented superinjunction. UK government officials were left exposed when in February 2022 a soldier inadvertently sent a list of tens of thousands of names to Afghans as he tried to help verify applications for sanctuary in Britain. • Read in full: 'Kill list' sent in error leads to £7bn cover-up The longest ever superinjunction and the first to have been secured by the government has been lifted in the High Court after nearly two years and a lengthy legal battle spearheaded by The Times. Mr Justice Chamberlain said the 'long-running and unprecedented' order, which stopped the world from knowing about a data breach concerning Afghans applying to come to Britain, had given rise to 'serious free speech concerns' and had left a 'scrutiny vacuum'. Handing down his judgment at midday on Tuesday, he said the gagging order had the effect of 'completely shutting down the ordinary mechanisms of accountability which operate in a democracy'. The superinjunction was in place for 683 days.
The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Thousands relocated to UK after data leak on Afghans who helped British forces
Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of a secret £850m scheme set up after a personal data leak of Afghans who supported British forces, it can now be reported. A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) was released 'in error' by a defence official in February 2022. The breach resulted in the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024. The scheme is understood to have cost about £400m so far, with a projected cost once completed of about £850m. Millions more is expected to be paid in legal costs and compensation. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) only became aware of the breach more than a year after the release when excerpts of the dataset were anonymously posted on to a Facebook group in August 2023. More details soon …
The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Cleverly hits out at populist ‘fantasy' amid London mayor bid speculation
Senior Conservative Sir James Cleverly hit out at the 'fantasy' of populist politics as he said the Tories should return to government 'at every level' amid speculation he could run for the London mayoralty. The former home secretary said calls to 'smash the system' and 'start again from scratch' were 'complete nonsense' in a speech making the case for greater accountability through realistic Whitehall reforms. Sir James also declined to rule out a bid for City Hall or another run for the party leadership as he was questioned about his political future following his defeat in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak last year. Appearing at the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank on Tuesday, the senior backbencher called for greater accountability in politics by reducing the 'cloud of quangos' in the system. Sir James said the 'go-to excuse for populist politicians' is to pretend 'difficult choices and trade-offs don't exist' and attack the Civil Service. 'I have lost count of the number of political gurus who said we should smash the system and start again from scratch,' he told the audience. 'Tempting though that may be, it is totally unrealistic, because all we need to do to deliver that is mobilise the alternative, anti-woke, right-wing civil service that's waiting in the wings to take things over when the Civil Service that we currently have is got rid of. 'Simple. It's also a fantasy. It's a complete nonsense. It's excuse-making, and it's weak.' Instead, he said further action was needed to tackle the 'tangle of quangos, commissioners, panels advisory bodies, all making decisions, almost none of whom have been voted for, and none of whom can be voted out.' He warned a 'disconnect between decision-making and accountability' introduces 'moral hazard' and 'erodes the very institutions upon which we rely'. In a Q&A following the speech, the former Cabinet minister insisted he had 'reconciled' himself to his defeat at the leadership election and would not 'jump' into his next career move as he faced questions about his future. Asked whether his plans entailed a bid for London mayor, another run for the Tory leadership or remaining on the back benches, he said: 'I like being in government. 'I don't like being in opposition, which is why I'm clear that I will play my part in helping to get Conservatives back into government, at every level of government. 'Exactly what I do next? I've forced a discipline on myself which is not to jump at something. 'I ran for leader. I didn't get it. I reconciled myself to that and I promised myself that I would spend some time thinking about exactly what I would do next. 'I know everyone will write into that 'Cleverly refuses to discount dot dot dot' – nothing I can do about that, you're going to write what you're going to write. 'But the simple fact of the matter is, I am focused on what I've always focused on, which is getting a Conservative government at every level to serve the British people, and that's my mission.' He sought to strike an optimistic note about the future of the Conservative Party as it flounders in the polls, arguing it is 'the oldest and most successful political movement in human history' because 'we adapt, we evolve, we fight back'. Sir James acknowledged opinion poll momentum for Reform posed a challenge for the Tories, but insisted Nigel Farage's party faced its own dilemma in seeking to be both 'new' and 'a repository for disgruntled former Conservatives'. The senior Tory said: 'If their sales pitch is 'we're not like the old political parties', but they are mainly populated with people from my party, it's going to be really hard for them to reconcile that sales pitch.' He hit out at former party members defecting to Reform, adding: 'I don't think it's smart. I don't think it's right. 'I think people lose credibility, particularly with people who have… very, very recently (stood as Conservatives) who then basically say 'the thing that made me realise I wasn't really a Tory was being booted out of office by the electorate'.'
