Ben Wallace takes ‘complete responsibility' for Afghan leak - but refuses to apologise for injunction

Independent

4 days ago

Sir Ben Wallace has said he takes complete responsibility for the catastrophic data breach which put the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans at risk.
After the secret evacuation scheme, costing the taxpayer £7bn, was revealed, the former defence secretary said he makes 'no apology' for seeking the injunction which resulted in it being kept secret for almost two years.
But, asked why the official responsible for the leak, in February 2022, Sir Ben said 'I take complete responsibility for the mistake that was made by that person... I was secretary of state for defence'.
The leak exposed the details of thousands of Afghans who said they were in danger from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces and now wanted to escape to Britain.
The blunder triggered a top secret government operation, codenamed Operation Rubific, which involved 16,000 Afghans being brought to the UK as part of Britain's largest covert peacetime evacuation, with some 8,000 still to come.
The whole operation was kept secret from MPs and the public, with ministers even deciding to hide the true reason for the evacuation from parliament.
Sir Ben said the decision to apply for the gagging order was 'not a cover-up' and that if the leak had been reported it would have 'put in peril those we needed to help out'.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said his government did not initially apply for a superinjunction to block reporting about the leak.
Sir Ben said: "When we applied in August 2023, when I was secretary of state, we didn't apply for superinjunction. We applied for a four-month injunction, a normal injunction.
'I can't speak for the subsequent two years, why a four month injunction became a two-year superinjunction.' Sir Ben was defence secretary from Juny 2019 to August 2023.
He defended his initial application for an injunction, adding: "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.
"That was my priority."
It came as Defence Secretary John Healey said the person involved in the leak was 'no longer doing the same job'.
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' in February 2022 by a defence official.
The Ministry of Defence only became aware of the breach 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 finding out about the leak.
Writing in the Telegraph, Sir Ben said that when he was informed of the 'error' he was 'determined that the first priority was to protect all those that might be at risk'.
'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. It was not, as some are childishly trying to claim, a cover-up,' he said.
'I took the view that if this leak was reported at the time, the existence of the list would put in peril those we needed to help out.
'Some may disagree but imagine if the Taliban had been alerted to the existence of this list. I would dread to think what would have happened.'
Sir Ben left office shortly after the then-government became aware of the breach, having announced some time earlier that he intended to step down as defence secretary.
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.
It is understood that the unnamed official emailed the data outside a secure government system while attempting to verify information, believing the dataset to only have around 150 rows.
However, more than 33,000 rows of information were inadvertently sent.
Downing Street declined to say on Tuesday whether the official involved had faced disciplinary action or was still employed by the Government.
Mr Healey later told the News Agents podcast that 'they are no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief' and 'this is bigger than the actions of a single individual'.
Pushed on whether anybody had lost their job, Mr Healey said: 'I'm actually not going to get into the personnel matters.'
The injunction was in place for almost two years, covering Labour and Conservative governments.
Mr Healey offered a 'sincere apology' on behalf of the Government in the Commons on Tuesday, and said he had been 'deeply uncomfortable' being unable to speak about it in Parliament.
Kemi Badenoch said sorry on behalf of the Conservatives.
Speaking to LBC on Tuesday evening, the Tory leader was asked whether she would apologise on behalf of the Conservatives who were in office at the time of the breach.
She said: 'On behalf of the government and on behalf of the British people yes, because somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there… and we are sorry for that.
'That should not happen. And this is one of the tough things about, you know, being a minister, which is why even the Government – the Labour Government, now this didn't happen when they were in power – they are apologising as well.'
Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including the estimated number of family members of the Arap applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, judges said in June 2024.
However an independent review, commissioned by the Government in January 2025, concluded last month that the dataset is 'unlikely to significantly shift Taliban understanding of individuals who may be of interest to them'.