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The Sun
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Ex-Army chief Lord Peter Inge famous for ‘putting the fear of God' into officers leaves staggering sum to family in will
FORMER Army chief Lord Peter Inge left £3million in his will. Lord Inge died in July 2022, aged 86, after a five-decade career in which he rose from National Service conscript to Field Marshal. He was the last Field Marshal to actively serve in the Army, with those since elevated to the highest rank, including King Charles, only done so after their retirement. Lord Inge was famous for putting the fear of God into other senior officers with cutting remarks and incisive questions. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1992, then Chief of the Defence Staff in 1994. Lord Inge later became a fierce critic of the British campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and blasted the Ministry of Defence for failing to 'think strategically'. The South London -born officer took the top Armed Forces job after his predecessor was caught having an affair with a Tory MPs wife, and while British forces were struggling in Bosnia. Sir John Major 's Conservative government had also pledged to further slash the size of the Army – with Inge under pressure to accept fresh cuts. The no-nonsense officer led forces through the conflict and was reportedly 'delighted' to come under mortar fire during a ride around Saravejo in a French armoured SUV. After being elevated to the House of Lords, Lord Inge of Richmond, Yorks., became a vocal critic of further plans to cut the Army. He left £3,167,854 in his estate, reduced by £150,000 after deductions. His wife Letitia died in 2020 so it was divided between daughters Antonia, 63, and Verity, 59. They also get their South London-born dad's vast collection of military memorabilia, farm estate in Leyburn, North Yorks, and central London flat. 1
Telegraph
26-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Taliban fighters ‘brought to Britain' in ‘kill list' airlift
Former Taliban fighters are living in the UK after being airlifted from Afghanistan on British mercy flights, The Telegraph has been told. The jihadis were allegedly among thousands of people brought here for their own safety because they were on a leaked list of names of Afghans who had applied to come to the UK. Sex offenders, corrupt officials and people imprisoned under the US-led coalition are also among those who have been accepted for resettlement in the UK in an apparent failure of vetting procedures. The Telegraph has shared details with British authorities. Around 6,900 Afghans are being flown to the UK as part of Operation Rubific, the codename for the Government's response to the 2022 data breach. A British official wrongly shared the personal details of 25,000 Afghans who had applied to a relocation scheme for those who had fought with British forces during the war in Afghanistan, or worked as translators or in other support roles. Until this month, a High Court super-injunction had prevented the media from reporting anything about the leak or the airlift. As The Telegraph reported earlier this month, several Cabinet ministers raised serious concerns about Operation Rubific because they were worried about national security, and the latest disclosures appear to justify their stance. According to multiple senior sources in Afghanistan, the evacuation process was infiltrated by individuals with Taliban connections who exploited the system and got fighters to the UK, including by naming Taliban fighters as family members and dependents who needed to join them here. 'We had civilians in our office who had clear ties with the Taliban,' one Afghan official said. 'They were taken to Britain and then introduced fighters as family members and brought them to Britain…some people on the evacuation list named people with clear ties to the Taliban and introduced Taliban people as cousins, and they are in Britain.' Sources describe a pattern where corrupt Afghan officials, rather than genuine British allies, were facilitating the evacuation of Taliban-connected individuals. 'We had a lot of corrupt officials,' another Afghan official said. 'Those corrupt officials are now taking Taliban fighters to Britain rather than those who really worked for the UK. It's depressing.' The official claimed that UK personnel often seemed to rely on these corrupt individuals for consultation and recommendations, leading to the inclusion of Taliban-connected people on evacuation lists. 'When my friends see them there, they call and say, 'Wow, that guy is here', but that top commander is hiding in Kabul,' one Afghan official said. The Ministry of Defence has previously confirmed that some Afghans have brought more than 20 people with them as family members. The Telegraph has been given the names of four alleged Taliban sympathisers who are among those said to have come to the UK under resettlement schemes. One of them, who came to Britain before the fall of Kabul in 2021, is said to have arranged for several Taliban-linked family members to follow him to the UK. The Ministry of Defence confirmed the man was living in Britain. It did not confirm or deny that he had been followed by family members with alleged links to the Taliban. A second man, a logistics worker who spent four years in prison for stealing and selling Coalition weapons to the Taliban before being released in the Taliban takeover of Kabul, is currently living in Britain, the Ministry of Defence confirmed. 'They are not good for Britain' Another case involved an individual who allegedly sexually abused female workers. Defence sources said he has not moved to Britain yet and that his case is being worked through. The fourth name passed to the Telegraph was that of a British passport holder who allegedly facilitated the evacuation of Taliban-connected individuals by vouching for them under the resettlement scheme. A Ministry of Defence spokesman did not directly comment on the allegation that he had brought Taliban sympathisers to the UK, and said only that the vetting process includes biographic and document checks and not just personal recommendations. The Telegraph has previously reported that Robert Clark, a former soldier and reservist who worked on the relocation scheme, said he had been informed by Ministry of Defence personnel that full vetting of applicants secretly brought to the UK had not been completed. Mr Clark warned there would be significant national security implications for intelligence services and police if proper background checks had not been conducted to determine whether individuals had been radicalised or maintained terrorist connections. 'They are not good for Britain,' said one former senior Afghan official who spoke with The Telegraph. 'They were fighting against British forces and killed lots of Brits, but now are being fed by Brits in London. They have British blood on their hands.'
Telegraph
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Afghan heroes left behind while bogus asylum seekers flock to Britain
Jamaluddin, not his real name, worked 'shoulder to shoulder' with British troops fighting the Taliban. A former colonel in the Afghan army, he is now living in hiding in a village north of Kabul, in fear of his life and attempting to stay one step ahead of the Taliban forces trying to hunt him down. His name was on the list of Afghans applying for asylum in the UK, whose details were leaked inadvertently, and with catastrophic consequences, by a British soldier working out of Special Forces headquarters in central London. Speaking by mobile phone, Jamaluddin is, by turns, petrified and furious. Not just at his abandonment by the British Government, but by a chaotic system that refused him asylum while allowing thousands of Afghans who falsely claimed they worked with British troops, and their families, into the UK. 'Among those evacuated, maybe only 20 per cent were genuine people who worked with British forces in Afghanistan and whose lives were in danger,' says Jamaluddin. 'They left behind colonels, commanders and deputy commanders of battalions while their drivers, cooks, gardeners, masseuses and shoe polishers were evacuated and are in Britain now.' There may be some hyperbole in his claims. He can be excused for that. But his claims are grounded in truth. The Government, behind the scenes, acknowledges that the 'vast majority' of the Afghans it has let in under various official resettlement schemes made bogus claims. 'Complete chaos' 'People who never said hello to a Briton and cannot even speak English are in Britain now,' says Jamaluddin. 'We had a driver who used to steal bullets and grenades that the UK and others gave to us and sell them to the Taliban – he took him and 150 of his family members with him to Britain. He is not a good person. He was evacuated during the chaos that was created after we heard about that leak. 'There are also people who took 70, 40, 50 family members with them to Britain: mother-in-law, fourth cousins. I know someone who took his sister's husband's brother's son's in-laws. It's complete chaos.' Official Ministry of Defence (MoD) figures disclosed to The Telegraph show that one single 'principal' allowed into the UK because of ties to the British military brought 22 dependents with him. That is a very big family. It is not hard to see how extended families even bigger than that may have slipped through the net. Jamaluddin says: 'People who had higher ranks added hundreds of people, friends and relatives to the list and took them out. I also know lots of people who had not even fired a single bullet but are in Britain now because they said they were in the army, and Britons fell for it. 'I cannot get my head around it. In one base, there was a guy whose job was to serve tea for people who would visit the base or clean tables. He is in Britain now, but the deputy commander of the same base is now hiding in Afghanistan. 'There are many of us who worked shoulder to shoulder with British forces still here, while our drivers and cleaners with a bad background are walking around London.' The mess has been exposed – and certainly highlighted – in the wake of a two-year court battle between the MoD and a number of newspapers, including The Telegraph. A super-injunction prevented the media from reporting the leaking of the spreadsheet, containing the names of nearly 24,000 Afghans who claimed to be working with British troops and were entitled to relocate to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap). Ministers 'panicked' Jamaluddin was one of the minority of people on the list whose claim for asylum was genuine. The data breach occurred in February 2022 and fell quickly into the hands of the Taliban, but journalists first learnt of it 18 months later in August 2023. The super-injunction – the very existence of which could not be reported – covered up the MoD's blunder, but also the extraordinary scramble to put in place a secret scheme to get Afghans on the list out of their home country and to the UK, seemingly regardless of whether their asylum claim was bogus. According to official documents, which were only revealed once the injunction was lifted on Tuesday, more than 16,000 Afghans were relocated to the UK because of the data breach. About 25,000 more are waiting in the wings. The cost of the data breach was put at £7bn but later revised down, although the financial cost has become something of a muddle. The Government estimated needing at least £20,000 per year per eligible person, with additional costs for health and education, to rehome them. The evacuation was done in secret. Parliament was not told, and neither were communities in places like Bracknell in Berkshire and Larkhill Army Camp in Wiltshire, which accommodated many of the Afghans. On average, each principal applicant brought with them seven family members. Some many more. Inside the MoD, the problems of rehousing large numbers of people secretly were vexing. One former official told The Telegraph: 'There were families made up of mid to high teen numbers. We certainly found that the many two, three and four-bed houses we had in the defence estate were often inadequate for the need and explored whether we'd need to knock two houses into one.' Another former senior official insisted that the MoD had wanted to keep the evacuations to married couples and their children, but the courts 'kept forcing us to accept much wider family members'. Baroness Cavendish, a Tory peer and former adviser to David Cameron, claimed that ministers had been seemingly 'panicked by the number of family members arriving'. Writing in the Financial Times, she said that in 2023 'several central and local government officials told me that the size of Afghan family groups was making it very difficult to find them places to live'. Godsend for bogus claimants One MoD paper, now reportable, that was circulated in March 2024 and became a part of the super-injunction court bundle, showed that before the leak officials were only allowing 10 per cent of additional family members to come in with eligible principals. In other words, Afghans trying to bring extended family into the UK were thwarted nine times out of 10. But after the leak, the ' increased risk ' left officials estimating that 55 per cent of extended family would need to be allowed in. The leap was huge. For bogus claimants, the data breach was a godsend. Suddenly, they could get to the UK and at a far swifter speed; ministers were alarmed that the Taliban were tracking them down. But the rush also meant genuine claimants have been left behind. Jamaluddin cannot understand it. 'Ah, brother, for the sake of God, what kind of process is this?' he says from his hideout. 'What kind of justice is it? What kind of human right is it? What kind of democracy is it? 'Everyone, I think, should know about it – how the real people were left behind and criminals were evacuated. You may want to laugh, but it's our reality.'
Telegraph
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Britain left me behind. Now the Taliban are hunting me down
Every two months, Tawab Karimi (not his real name) becomes someone else. New address. New neighbours. Same nightmare. In the maze of Kabul's residential neighbourhoods, where concrete walls topped with razor wire have become the norm, he moves like a ghost through his own city – never staying in one place long enough to feel safe, never staying away long enough to feel forgotten. Every other month, Mr Karimi packs his few belongings and slips away to a new hiding place. The Taliban fighters looking for him carry American-made weapons – an irony not lost on the man who once worked with British forces in Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. Having initially applied for and been promised safe passage to Britain, he was repeatedly let down by officials who left him in Afghanistan. His circumstances only became more dangerous when he was added to a leaked list of Afghans who had helped British forces. 'I worked for Britons who were both civilians and military officers from 2012 until the fall of Kabul,' he tells The Telegraph from his latest safe house, his voice barely above a whisper. The walls around him are thin, and in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, even conversations can be dangerous. For nearly a decade, Mr Karimi worked in an intelligence office of the former government, moving through Kabul's heavily fortified Green Zone in District 10, where international forces managed their operations. 'They put me on the list after the fall of Kabul,' he recalls, referring to the leaked list that threatens death sentences for thousands of former government workers. Friends of his who were also on the list were approached by British officials, who gave them 25 days to introduce themselves and get out of the country. However, Mr Karimi had already gone into hiding, turning his phone off, and so missed the deadline. 'Later on, without telling me, I got to know through a friend they gave me a 25-day deadline to introduce myself to the contact so they could get me out of Afghanistan. 'I was in a very bad situation and turned my phones off,' he explains. 'Then they left and told me to register myself on Arap,' referring to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, Britain's programme for evacuating Afghan allies. 'They said my name is there. After that, I called them a lot but their phones were all off.' The chaotic days around Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021 haunt him still. 'I went outside the airport several times, but it was too risky and I did not know if I should be there or not,' he remembers. The images from that time – desperate crowds, Taliban checkpoints, the final flights departing – represent both hope and abandonment for thousands like Mr Karimi. 'I'm still waiting' But then, months later, his phone – now switched on – rang again. At 1am on a winter night, Mr Karimi's world briefly flickered back to life. 'A few months later, they called me and spoke with me for three hours – from 1am to 3am,' he recalls. 'They asked me many questions, took all my personal information, and asked where I was. I told them I was in a house in Kabul. They said that was fine, told me not to go out, and asked me to wait.' For three hours, Mr Karimi answered every question, provided every detail, clung to every word that suggested rescue might finally be coming. The British voices on the other end were thorough, professional, reassuring. They told him not to call them on their numbers. They would call him. 'But they never did, and I'm still waiting.' That midnight call came sometime after the devastating revelation that had upended thousands of lives: a massive data breach in 2022 that exposed the names of 25,000 Afghans who had applied for British asylum. The leak handed the Taliban a comprehensive directory of everyone who had helped Western forces. 'These two years since we heard the list was leaked have felt like 40 years for me and my family,' Mr Karimi explains. 'I worked in the Kabul Directorate – a key office in Afghanistan's intelligence operations,' he explains. 'Some people from our office were evacuated, and now they're using their connections and the privilege of being there to bring out everyone they know, while those truly at risk are still stuck here.' The selection process, according to Mr Karimi, prioritised low-ranking personnel over those facing the greatest danger. He watched in bewilderment as people with minimal ties to British forces found safety while senior intelligence officers remained trapped. 'I don't understand the evacuations' 'I know someone who was evacuated, and after arriving in Britain, managed to evacuate his mother-in-law, who is now gravely ill and on the brink of death,' he says. 'I also know people who never worked for the government but were evacuated in the rush of the past two years and are now living in Britain. 'Very strange people have been evacuated. I don't understand how it works – whether they have connections in London, paid someone, or something else – but they had no ties to Britain, the Afghan government, or foreign forces. 'I know someone with a disability who worked as a chef at a base in Helmand – he's now in Britain.' Every news report of former government workers being found and killed reinforces Mr Karimi's paranoia. Every Taliban patrol reminds him that the hunters are still searching. In his nomadic existence, Mr Karimi has become a living symbol of the West's unfinished business in Afghanistan. He represents thousands of Afghan allies who helped Nato forces during the 20-year war, only to find themselves abandoned when the international community withdrew. A life of perpetual motion Mr Karimi escorted BBC correspondents through Kabul's most dangerous districts, provided intelligence briefings to British officers, and navigated the complex tribal politics that could mean the difference between a successful mission and a body bag. His reward for that loyalty? A place on the Taliban's most-wanted lists and a life of perpetual motion. 'I was living in District 4, but then the Taliban started cracking down on anyone who had worked with foreigners in that part of Kabul,' he recalls. 'I moved to District 2, then to District 11, and then to several other areas.' Each move is calculated, each neighbourhood chosen for its anonymity, each departure timed to stay ahead of the Taliban's methodical hunt for former collaborators. The government secretly relocated nearly 24,000 Afghans. But for Mr Karimi, watching from his rotating safe houses, the evacuation process revealed a cruel lottery that seemed to prioritise the wrong people. A second man whose name is on the list told The Telegraph: 'People like base gardeners or low-ranking soldiers were taken to Britain, but many high-ranking colonels whose lives are truly at risk were left behind, just waiting for death to come.' The former special forces member criticised the selection process, saying Britain evacuated support staff while abandoning senior military allies. 'It's deeply disappointing. This isn't justice. I don't understand how they prioritised the evacuations – they even took the guy who used to polish shoes, or a base's barber, but left behind many colonels,' he said. 'I haven't slept well in years' Meanwhile, Mr Karimi's own family has become prisoners of his past. 'I've asked my children not to tell anyone what I used to do before,' he says. 'I haven't slept well in years. I'm always waiting for someone to come and arrest me or harm my children.' His days are spent obsessively checking his phone for any sign of hope, any indication that his name might appear on an evacuation list. 'I can't go out much and I'm constantly checking my phone for news or anything that could help me get out of this devastating situation. 'I heard from other colleagues that Britain is planning to secretly evacuate 33,000 people. I hope they can help me too.' But hope comes with its own price in Afghanistan. 'The Taliban have arrested many relatives of those evacuated. They're torturing them and forcing them to pay large sums of money,' Mr Karimi says. As night falls over Kabul, he checks the locks on his doors and windows, knowing that in a few weeks, he'll be doing the same ritual in a different location. 'During the day, I go out into the yard, but at night, it's a nightmare,' he says. 'I always feel like someone is going to come through the window.'
CTV News
17-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
How an email error sparked a secret scramble to bring thousands of Afghans to Britain
LONDON — British governments past and present face allegations of avoiding scrutiny and undermining democracy after the revelation that thousands of Afghans have been resettled in the U.K under a program that was hidden from the media, the public and lawmakers in Parliament. Key information was also kept from the Afghans themselves, who had assisted U.K. forces and whose personal details had been disclosed in a huge data leak. Many plan to sue the British government for putting them in danger from the Taliban. Some are left in Afghanistan as the current British government says the resettlement program will end. Here's what happened in an extraordinary chain of events. An email error with huge consequences The saga was triggered by the chaotic Western exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban, ousted from power 20 years earlier, swept across the country, seized Kabul and reimposed their strict version of Islamic law. Afghans who had worked with Western forces — as fixers, translators and in other roles — or who had served in the internationally backed Afghan army were at risk of retribution. Britain set up a program, known as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, or ARAP, to bring some to the U.K. In February 2022, a defense official emailed a spreadsheet containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 ARAP applicants to someone outside the Ministry of Defense. The government says the individual thought they were sending a list of about 150 names, not the whole set. The British government only became aware of the leak when a portion of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list. The government sought secrecy The leak sparked alarm among British officials who feared as many as 100,000 people were in danger when family numbers of the named individuals were added. The then-Conservative government sought a court order barring publication of the list. A judge granted a sweeping order known as a super injunction, which barred anyone from revealing not only information about the leak but the existence of the injunction itself. Super injunctions are relatively rare and their use is controversial. Most of the handful of cases in which they have come to light involved celebrities trying to prevent disclosures about their private lives. This is the first known case of a super injunction being granted to the government. Former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday that he sought the legal order to gain 'time and space to deal with this leak, find out whether the Taliban had it' and protect those at risk. Wallace said he asked for an ordinary injunction — not a super injunction — for a period of four months. The gag order remained in place for almost two years. A secret program sparked a legal battle The government began bringing to Britain the Afghans on the leaked list who were judged to be most at risk. To date, some 4,500 people — 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the program. About 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a cost of 850 million pounds (US$1.1 billion). In all, about 36,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.K. since 2021. Meanwhile, several news organizations had learned of the leaked list but were barred from publishing stories about it. They challenged the super injunction in court, and a judge ordered it lifted in May 2024 — but it remained in place after the government appealed. The government finally came clean Britain held an election in July 2024 that brought the center-left Labour Party to power. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Cabinet learned of the injunction soon after taking office and grappled with how to proceed. In January, the government ordered a review by a former senior civil servant. They found little evidence that the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban. The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces and is more concerned with current threats to its authority. Given those findings, the government dropped its support for the super injunction. The injunction was lifted in court Tuesday, and minutes later Defense Secretary John Healey stood in the House of Commons to make the saga public for the first time. Many questions remain unanswered Healey said the secret settlement route was being closed, but acknowledged Wednesday that 'the story is just beginning,' and many questions remain unanswered. Immigration critics including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are demanding to know what screening was done on the people who came under the secret program. Lawyers for Afghans on the leaked list want to know why the information was kept from them. Adnan Malik, head of data privacy at U.K. legal firm Barings Law, said he was assembling a class-action lawsuit by hundreds of former translators, soldiers and others. Lawmakers and free speech advocates say the use of a super injunction is deeply worrying. They ask how Parliament and the media can hold the government to account if there is such stringent secrecy. Judge Martin Chamberlain, who ruled that the injunction should be lifted, said Tuesday at the High Court that the super injunction 'had the effect of completely shutting down the ordinary mechanisms of accountability.' Healey acknowledged that 'you cannot have democracy with super injunctions in place,' and said the government had acted as quickly and safely as it could. 'Accountability starts now,' he told the BBC. Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
