Rishi Sunak called last year’s general election the day after a judge ruled the super-injunction on the Afghan data leak should be lifted.
This week, it was revealed that the details of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the UK after the Taliban seized power were mistakenly leaked in by a British defence official in February 2022.
This resulted in a top secret resettlement scheme being set up for those on the leaked list.
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The story had yet to be reported on because the then-Tory government managed to get a highly restrictive super-injunction issued on the leak by the courts. This meant the breach and the court order itself both could not be reported on.
The superinjunction was granted over fears that as many as 100,000 people could face repercussions from the Taliban if they became aware of the leaked document.
On Tuesday though, the High Court ruled the super-injunction could be lifted.
It turns out this wasn’t the first time this decision was taken by the court though. On 21 May 2024, a judge ruled the super-injunction should be lifted.
The very next day, Rishi Sunak called a shock general election.
The Ministry of Defence managed to successfully appeal the decision at the Court of Appeal, which ruled the super-injunction should be continued but reviewed every three months.
The Tories of course lost the election last year, and Labour decided to keep the super-injunction in place. Defending this decision, Downing Street said there “was significant work that needed to be done” to assess the situation.”
A review looking at the possibility of lifting the super-injunction formally began in January.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons this week, Sir Keir Starmer said: “There’s always been support across this House for the United Kingdom fulfilling our obligations to Afghans who served alongside British forces.
“We warned in opposition about Conservative management of this policy and yesterday, the defence secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited: a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
“Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.”