WATCH: Mark White details 'difficult position' for Labour after Afghan data breach

GB News

GB News Home and Security Editor Mark White has shared details of the "very embarrassing" issue the Government is facing, after a major data breach exposed the identities of Afghans who assisted British forces, prompting a secret evacuation effort and an extraordinary legal cover-up.Speaking to the People's Channel, Mark revealed: "The Government clearly are very embarrassed by this, a situation that they find themselves in, a lot of money that has been spent, and thousands of people who have had to be relocated to the UK as a result."There is confusion, and I think that needs to be clarified by the Ministry of Defence as a matter of urgency, because there are figures suggesting that tens of thousands, perhaps 18,000 or so, may already have been relocated to the UK."WATCH ABOVE.

Transcript

00:00Mark, so what do we know? There is a little bit of confusion over the numbers.

00:04How many Afghans have been relocated so far to the United Kingdom as a direct result of this breach?

00:15Well, officially the Ministry of Defence is saying that 4,500 Afghans have been relocated to the UK

00:23under this scheme with about another 500 or so who are still to be relocated at a cost so far of some 400 million

00:33with an additional cost of about 400 to 450 million.

00:39But you're right, there is confusion and I think that needs to be clarified by the Ministry of Defence as a matter of urgency

00:49because there are these figures suggesting that tens of thousands, perhaps 18,000 or so,

00:56may already have been relocated to the UK.

01:01Now, that might be explained and I'm only guessing because of the lack of detail,

01:05it's difficult to do any more than this.

01:07It might be that they are suggesting that 4,500 people who are the sort of main participants of the scheme,

01:16i.e. the individuals who may have worked for the UK government at that given time,

01:24have been brought across.

01:26But it might also be that their family members account for the extra thousands who come across.

01:32As I say, I'm only guessing. I don't really know.

01:35It's clearly been a very difficult position that the British government has found itself in

01:41through the careless actions of an official in emailing out that information

01:47with the spreadsheet of those 19,000 individuals who'd worked for the UK military

01:55and UK interests across in Afghanistan during that period from 2001 to 2021,

02:03when the UK government, of course, then pulled out its troops from Afghanistan

02:09after the Taliban retook control of that country.

02:14The government will argue that it had to have this super injunction,

02:19that it had to have a period in which the strictest confidentiality was abided by

02:27in order to get those individuals whose lives they deemed at risk at that time out of Afghanistan.

02:34That super injunction, of course, could not hold, according to the High Court judge

02:40who ruled that that injunction should now be lifted, given the passage of time.

02:47And we are where we are.

02:48The government clearly very embarrassed by this situation that they find themselves in.

02:56A lot of money that has been spent and thousands of people who have had to be relocated to the UK as a result.

03:05I mean, this does raise a huge number of questions, not just on the secrecy of government,

03:12on what the people are told what their taxes are being spent on

03:17and what even Parliament is able to know about the operations of government,

03:21but also about the professionalism of our armed forces,

03:27which we often describe as the best in the world.

03:29But...

Category

Transcript

Recommended