MoD braced for £1billion compensation bill after 100k lives put at risk of Taliban death squads by Afghan leak scandal
Around 100,000 were put at risk of Taliban death squads when their names or loved ones' were revealed in 2022 — with the blunder then 'covered up' by a UK gagging order.
Advertisement
7
Evacuation of Afghans in 2021 after the Taliban took control - ahead of the Conservative Government's 2023 secret airlift, codenamed Operation Rubific
Credit: Getty
7
The Taliban has stated it is actively hunting those revealed on the leaked list
Credit: AP
7
Around 100,000 Afghans were put at risk of Taliban death squads when their names or loved ones' were revealed in 2022
Thousands could sue the MoD after the leak was made public this week.
Almost 900 Afghans on the 'kill list' email leak are ready to sue — with lawyers saying thousands more are poised to join them.
Legal sources claimed victims whose lives were endangered could be entitled 'to five-figure payouts'.
Adnan Malik, at Manchester firm Barings Law, which is representing nearly 900, said: 'The victims have been exposed to not just financial harm, but the real threat of violence and death.
Advertisement
READ MORE ON AFGHAN DATA LEAK
In some cases, these threats have been tragically carried out.
Monies claimed will vary substantially between claimants, we would expect sums upwards of five figures for each person affected.'
That could see the overall compensation bill pass £1billion.
The February 2022 leak was caused by a Special Forces soldier who accidentally shared a list of 18,714 people who had applied to flee to Britain in the wake of the
Advertisement
Most read in The Sun
The list included their last-known locations, how they served British forces, and in some instances who supported their claims — including MPs, Special Forces and spies.
The leak, which included details of a 'secret route' for some of those affected to come to the UK, was only discovered when excerpts were put on Facebook in August 2023.
Taliban warns thousands of Afghans secretly airlifted to UK 'we will HUNT you down'
The next month, the Tory government used a superinjunction to stop journalists reporting the breach. It was extended until being lifted by a High Court judge this Tuesday.
A defence source said yesterday: 'People on that list had fought with British forces in Afghanistan.
Advertisement
'They fought against the Taliban. First of all we let the Taliban take over, and then when these people came to us for help we put their lives in even more danger.'
The potential huge bill emerged as Nigel Farage claimed 'convicted sex offenders' are among the
The Reform UK leader said the rescue of almost 20,000 Afghans is a risk to women's safety — triggering a row with Labour and the Tories.
Defence Secretary John Healey insisted everyone had been checked 'carefully' for any criminal records. And he said if Mr Farage had any hard evidence, he should report it to police.
Advertisement
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride also said Mr Farage should provide evidence for his claims.
PM Sir Keir Starmer said the previous Tory government had serious questions to answer over the leak.
Hunting people down
Sir Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary at the time, insisted there was not a cover-up and the gagging order was to protect at-risk Afghans, and he made 'no apology' for doing so.
Sir Ben also said he applied for a four-month injunction and did not know why it was converted into a superinjunction in September 2023, when Grant Shapps had taken over as Defence Secretary.
Advertisement
7
The list contained the details of 20,000 Afghans whose country had been taken over by the Taliban
Credit: Alamy
7
The leaked list also included the names of UK sponsors and MI6 spies who could have become targets of the Taliban in Afghanistan
Credit: Getty
Ex-Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said Mr Shapps had questions to answer. Mr Shapps has yet to comment.
Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf, head of Reform's Department of Government Efficiency, has launched a petition calling for an independent, judge-led inquiry.
Advertisement
He said: 'We want to know who made these decisions.'
Lawyers insisted the injunction was necessary to protect the lives of people who were named and
It included hundreds of Afghan Special Forces who had served in units known as the Triples, alongside Britain's SAS and SBS.
The Triples conducted thousands of night raids against senior Taliban leaders and counter-narcotics operations.
Advertisement
Last night, Taliban sources claimed they have had the list for years — and
A Taliban official said: 'We got the list from the internet during the first days when it was leaked.
'A special unit has been launched to find them and make sure they do not work with Britain. We've been calling and visiting their family members to track them down.'
7
The potential huge bill emerged as Nigel Farage claimed 'convicted sex offenders' are among the Afghans secretly airlifted into the UK
Credit: PA
Advertisement
7
Defence Secretary John Healey insisted everyone had been checked 'carefully' for any criminal records
Credit: PA
In 2023, the Government launched a secret airlift, codenamed Operation Rubific, to smuggle around 4,500 people on the list to Britain.
They are among 34,000 Afghans who have been offered new lives in Britain since the Taliban takeover. That number is expected to rise to 43,000 and the Government predicts the total cost will be £7billion.
An MoD spokesman yesterday insisted a £1billion compensation bill was 'pure speculation'.
Advertisement
He said: 'The Government inherited a deeply complex situation and since taking office, have taken appropriate action in line with the level of risk these individuals faced.
'We will do everything possible to defend against any compensation claims and any we do get, we will fight them hard.'
MINISTERS' BLAME GAME
FORMER Tory ministers have turned on each other as a blame game erupted over the Afghan data leak.
Former PM Liz Truss accused
She said she was 'shocked by the secrecy' of
And she demanded those responsible in governments and the bureaucracy needed to be held to account.
But Sir Ben hit back by claiming Ms Truss — Foreign Secretary under Boris Johnson in February 2022 — approved the plan in office.
He replied to her X post: 'Oh dear Liz. Not quite. You were part of the Cabinet that approved the relocation of Afghans and the wider Home Office refugee scheme.'
He also defended his actions, writing: 'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. Imagine if the Taliban had been alerted to the existence of this list.'
Sir Keir Starmer said both former ministers had 'serious questions to answer' about the airlift that may ultimately cost an estimated £7billion.
Ex-Tory MP
And Reform UK's Zia Yusuf has called for a judge-led inquiry into the operation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
3 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
English seaside county votes to become UK's 5th nation on par with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
A SEASIDE county has voted to become the UK's 5th nation as it hopes to be put on a par with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A proposal passed with a majority of votes on July 22. 4 Cornwall Council has voted to become the UK's 5th nation in a majority vote Credit: Getty 4 Council leader Leigh Frost believes it would improve funding in the area Credit: Cornwall Council 4 The council said it was facing a housing crisis, and issues with child poverty Credit: Getty 4 Since 2014, the Cornish have been recognised as a national minority Credit: Getty Cornwall Council passed the proposal with a vote of 53 to 22, with two abstentions. Council leader Leigh Frost believes that it would lead to fairer funding, stronger representation, and greater inclusion in national decision-making. It would also put the seaside town on a par with the other Celtic nations. Frost Read more News "It's time to show what Cornwall is made of." Previously, the 2025 State of Cornwall report had laid out the challenges the county was facing. It included low wages, high house prices and a housing crisis that pushes young people out of their home towns. In addition, the county is facing a struggling social care system, with limited public transport and child poverty. Most read in The Sun Meanwhile, the county has become popular among second-home owners looking to enjoy the beautiful beaches. The proposal was brought forward by Dick Cole, council member and leader of local political party Mebyon Kernow, in an attempt to address some of these issues. The seaside town of Newlyn in Cornwall has been dubbed as one of the 'coolest' places to relocate Despite the majority supporting the bill, local Reform councillors largely voted against the proposal. They cited concerns over the potential for tax increases and a loss of British identity. Cornwall's Local Democracy Reporting service reported that Reform member Rowland O'Connor said: "I identify as Cornish but also British. "It feels like I'm being asked to choose one or the other and I refuse to do that." Since 2014, the Cornish have been recognised as a national minority. This is in spite of their long-standing history, which Frost says out-dates England's. The vote came following an address by Frost on the "State of Cornwall in the National Context". As reported by the Following the successful vote, the council plans to write to Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner to work towards getting the proposal enacted on a national level. They will also continue to build support on a local level among Cornwall's MPs.
Irish Post
5 hours ago
- Irish Post
Born in Britain, still not English
THERE are quite clearly some people who were born and raised in Irish families in England who consider themselves English. I don't have any problem with that.I don't fully understand it, but that's not meant as any kind of judgement. I'm only going by my own experience, and such was the intensity of being Irish in that upbringing that being English just never occurred to me. Of course, I can see how that is different for different people. Coming from those huge, urban Irish immigrant communities, I can't quite see how you come out of that not being Irish—but, you know, to each their own. English. Half-Irish-Half-English. British. I've heard all of them and, like I say, while I can't quite grasp those identities, that doesn't mean they aren't valid. The failure of understanding is mine, isn't it? I know I can define and defend my identity—God only knows I've gone on about it quite enough—so I've no need to denigrate someone else's. I do have some bad news, though, for those who do see themselves as English: it might just be the case that they don't want you. The English, I mean. The English-English, if you like. Fittingly enough, as I'm writing this in the month the death was announced of Norman Tebbit, the 1980s hardline Conservative MP. Back in the eighties, Tebbit was one of my early confirmations of how I wasn't English when he rolled out his infamous 'cricket test'. It all sounds quite innocent by today's standards, but Tebbit's notion was that if you had been raised and were living and working in England but did not support England in the cricket, then what were you doing here? As neither a cricket fan nor an England fan, I knew I was going to fail that loyalty test every time. I was never going to be English in Tebbit's eyes—and that suited me fine. But we've gone way past cricket now in Brexit-flavoured England. What follows is not a conversation from the dark corners of the internet, nor one between fringe figures. It comes from The Spectator magazine and features Michael Gove, who was until recently a senior government minister, and Matt Goodwin, a political scientist, commentator, and GB News presenter. These are their words, quoted verbatim for the purposes of commentary: Michael Gove: 'Would you say that Kemi Badenoch, or Rishi Sunak or Tony Sewell or Dame Kelly Holmes are not really English?' Matt Goodwin: 'Well, this is a debate. My view is that Englishness is an ethnicity, deeply rooted in a people that can trace their roots back over generations. It is a very distinctive identity and a different identity from Britishness. I think someone can identify as British and can be British but they cannot simultaneously identify as English.' Goodwin continues: 'I take a much thicker view of Englishness and that is that our history, the legacy of our collective identity, the legacy of our culture, goes much deeper and much further back.' Gove then asks him about the Englishness of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak—pointing out that Sunak was born and raised in Southampton, went to that most English of public schools, Winchester, supports Southampton FC, and is a Conservative. 'Is he not English?' To which Goodwin replies: 'Well, Rishi Sunak could choose to identify as English if he views himself that way, but I think it is also true that there is an English ethnicity, an English group, that goes back generations that Rishi Sunak himself would say, 'I do not have as strong a linkage to that group as other people do.'' Asked to define Englishness, Goodwin says: 'I would say someone who has been born in England, can trace their roots back through many generations, and who would identify with a way of life and a culture that surrounds Englishness as an identity.' Now, all of those words are theirs. I haven't altered them or shaped them to fit an argument of my own. I haven't even explored where such ideas of English ethnic identity lead to, or just how many people it excludes. But one, maybe two generations removed from a farmer in Mayo, a labourer in Cork, or a painter in Dublin—just how English do you think they really think you are? Joe Horgan posts on X at @JoeHorganwriter See More: Englishness, Irish Identity
Irish Independent
14 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Indian officials condemn Western media over Air India plane crash reports
Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu expressed full confidence in India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the probe into the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people, making it the deadliest Indian aviation disaster in four decades. The comments come ahead of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's trip to the UK. He will be in London today and tomorrow where he is slated to meet his British counterpart, Keir Starmer. The aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel in a residential area of Ahmedabad. Among the dead, 52 were British nationals. The sole survivor was a British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. 'AAIB has made an appeal to all, especially western media houses, which may have a vested interest in the kind of articles they are trying to publish. I believe in AAIB. I believe in the work that they are doing,' he said, according to the Indian Express. The minister commended the AAIB for decoding the aircraft's black box domestically, describing it as a 'huge success', as previous incidents typically required the data to be sent abroad for analysis. Mr Kinjarapu's remarks came days after the AAIB publicly urged both the media and the public to 'refrain from spreading premature narratives' about the crash. Its director general, GVG Yugandhar, noted that the preliminary report aimed only to present early findings and did not apportion blame. He also criticised 'irresponsible' reporting by international media, accusing them of selectively using unverified information to suggest pilot error. The preliminary report, released on July 12, revealed that both fuel control switches of the Boeing 787-8's engines moved from 'run' to 'cut off' within one second, moments after take-off, leading to an immediate loss of power. The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot asking the other why the fuel was cut off, to which the second replied that he had not done so. The document does not state who, if anyone, moved the switches, using the neutral term 'transitioned' and offering no conclusions on intent or fault. It also notes no technical fault in the aircraft. However, some international reports implied pilot error, prompting backlash from India's aviation fraternity.
