Revealed: 'fratricide' between squabbling ministers amid £7billion chaos of Afghan superinjunction scandal - as Parliamentary inquiry condemns secrecy and says daring rescues might have to resume

The full meltdown in Whitehall over the secret Afghan airlift exposed by the Daily Mail is laid bare today by an excoriating Parliamentary inquiry.Ministers who used an unprecedented superinjunction to shut down democracy and hush up a devastating data breach have been condemned by the Commons' Defence Committee.In a landmark report, it exposes the 'deeply troubling' chaos that unfolded behind the scenes when hapless Ministry of Defence officials put the day job to one side and tried to run a top-secret immigration scheme to airlift Afghans into Britain. Incredibly, ministers signed off £7billion of taxpayers' money without any scrutiny, knowing the superinjunction was keeping MPs and the public in the dark.Today the chairman of the Defence Committee, Labour MP Tan Dhesi, said: 'The Ministry of Defence should stick to defence - it should never have been left to run immigration casework schemes. Secrecy has been too easily used as a shield against proper accountability.' Crucially, the MPs bluntly warn that Afghans such as interpreters who risked their lives serving alongside UK forces – only to be abandoned when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021 - are in danger of being betrayed again. The committee said the government might have to U-turn on a recent decision to make it harder for them to be rescued by forcing them to 'self-move' out of Afghanistan.The MPs were damning of the way Afghans have been treated in some cases, saying the government's decision 'risks becoming in practice an exclusion mechanism for eligible people who are too poor, too vulnerable or too exposed to travel independently'. The committee has spent 10 months investigating the MoD's catastrophic leak of a database of Afghans who had applied to the UK for sanctuary. Bungling defence officials lost their personal data – leading to fears vengeful Taliban warlords would hunt down and murder 'traitors' such as interpreters who had worked alongside British troops during the UK's two decades in Afghanistan.After the Daily Mail discovered the data breach in August 2023, ministers obtained a superinjunction to prevent anyone finding out – with journalists facing jail if they breathed a word, a situation that lasted almost two years during which the Mail and other media fought for press freedom in locked-door courtrooms. After the superinjunction was lifted in July last year, the Mail won six Press industry awards for the story, and the paper's journalists gave evidence to several inquiries including the Defence Committee's, which commended journalists for 'their grit, their determination and their pursuit of the truth'. The Daily Mail watched hundreds of migrants filing off a taxpayer-chartered jet at Stansted airport during the rescue mission which the judge allowed to stay secret from taxpayers Tan Dhesi MP, chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee: 'The Ministry of Defence should stick to defence - it should never have been left to run immigration schemes' Afghans rescued by Britain land at Stansted Airport in Essex after being spirited across the border to Pakistan and airlifted to the UK How ministers signed up to a £7billion scheme to relocate Afghans to the UK, without asking or telling taxpayers or MPs. The MOD says the figure has since been revised to around £6billion Former military interpreter Rafi Hottak who was blown up on the frontline serving with British forces and the Daily Mail's David Williams, both giving evidence to the committeeThe 2022 data breach had put 100,000 Afghans 'at risk of death' and prompted a clandestine evacuation scheme to rescue interpreters and others loyal to Britain who were abandoned after the Taliban seized back control of Afghanistan in 2021. Today's report revealed that, as the MoD's secret and eye-wateringly expensive scheme grew, other Whitehall departments turned on each other in 'fratricide' as it became clear they were expected to foot enormous bills for transporting, housing and educating the influx of Afghans, along with the burden on GP surgeries.Former interpreter Rafi Hottak, who was blown up while serving with UK forces and gave evidence to the committee, said 2,000 Afghans who worked with Western troops have been murdered so far by the Taliban, according to reports, and he demanded: 'Britain must now stand beside Afghans who risked their lives for UK and complete the responsibility it accepted.'He added: 'The policy requiring eligible Afghans to fund and arrange their own movement to a third country may be possible for a small number of applicants, but it is impossible for many others. These are often families who have spent years in hiding, have no employment or savings, and cannot safely obtain visas, flights or accommodation without assistance.'Professor Sara de Jong, a founding member of the Sulha Alliance which campaigns for ex-interpreters and gave evidence to the committee, welcomed the report and 'its recognition of the human costs to Afghans affected by the data breach'. She said: 'The report's key recommendation that the Government should publish 'a clear policy for eligible Afghans who cannot safely, lawfully or affordably self-move to a third country' needs be put in practice most urgently.' CASE STUDY: 'AT LAST WE HAVE SOME HOPE' Tahir, in hiding in AfghanistanFormer frontline interpreter Tahir – in hiding from Taliban reprisals - hailed the Defence Committee's demand that the MoD help ensure safe evacuation for those still in Afghanistan as 'a vital lifeline'. The 40 year-old father-of-three was approved for relocation more than a year ago and instructed to await help - only to be told he must now secure and pay for his family's escape without any help from the UK. Tahir (not his real name), who worked with British forces for more than three years, has been in hiding ever since the Taliban seized his family home and gave it to a fighter. 'I would like to thank the MPs for providing us with hope as we do not have the documentation or money to escape on our own,' he said. 'My family has sold everything, we are unable to work and we are heavily in debt.'It would cost us more than $12,000 (£9,200) to escape Afghanistan and then we would have to pay for accommodation in Tajikistan while we await approval for visas. We simply can't afford it. 'Those who risked their lives for UK felt betrayed when assistance was stopped by the UK and then we were told we could not relocate if we took more than a year to escape but I pray that the government follows the directive of the committee and provides us with the help to safely leave Afghanistan. At last, we have some hope.' Erin Alcock, a lawyer with Leigh Day helping Afghans, said: 'We have clients who are stranded in Afghanistan, unable to afford the inflated costs of visas to travel to a third country. They have patiently waited for help, in fear, only to now be told help is not coming.'The Defence Committee's report said the project had descended into 'a wider failure of governance'. The original data breach was 'a foreseeable systemic failure', and was followed by 'prolonged secrecy' and 'administrative failures that have affected lives, damaged trust, and carried significant cost to the British taxpayer'.A striking feature of the chaos was that 'no individual appears to have been held personally accountable', the committee found.And because of the superinjunction, and the decision not to tell MPs anything, the usual convention of ministerial accountability had been shelved.The inquiry recommended the government should learn lessons and publish a plan to show how the public interest would be protected if a similar superinjunction was ever considered in the future.The committee also castigated the government for withholding key documents from its inquiry which 'has affected our ability to scrutinise fully an episode involving risk to life, major public expenditure and an unprecedented period of secrecy'.The senior MPs praised journalists from the Mail and other media who had been served with the superinjunction for their 'restraint' but said Parliament should not have been kept in the dark. 'In circumstances as grave as these, the government should have tested more seriously whether confidential briefing could be provided to a wider group of parliamentarians,' they said. Lawyer Ms Alcock said: 'I am encouraged by the findings and recommendations of the Defence Select Committee. The need for stronger systems and firmer accountability echo precisely the concerns we have raised on behalf of our clients over various aspects of the ARAP [relocation] scheme since its inception.'The findings about the Government's new self-move policy are stark and bring into sharp focus the issues we have already raised. We have clients who are stranded in Afghanistan, unable to afford the inflated costs of visas to travel to a third country.'She also noted that the Rimmer Review - an assessment of the risk to Afghans, carried out on behalf of the Government and which found there was low risk - was not the 'final word', according to the MPs. She said: 'It is also notable that the Committee has cautioned against relying on the Rimmer Review as the final word on risk. This finding is important for a number of our clients, who feel strongly that the conclusions of that Review do not chime with the reality of their current situation.' A campaigner known only as Person A, who also gave key evidence, said: 'I trust that the MoD will take the report's findings seriously. We owe these men and women a debt of honour, and it's time to move heaven and earth to keep the promises we made.'An MOD spokesman said: 'This incident should never have happened, and we acknowledge the significant impact it has had on many people.'Thousands of eligible Afghans have already been safely relocated to the UK, where they can rebuild their lives and we are committed to ensuring that we conclude the Afghan Resettlement Programme by the end of this Parliament.'We are learning the lessons from this incident and important reforms are already in place, including improved data protection standards, strengthened case-working processes and better programme governance.'We welcome the public and parliamentary scrutiny of our actions, so we can learn more and be held to account, and we'll continue to work closely with the Committee on this issue.'