John Healey accused of misleading Parliament over Afghan data breach
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John Healey accused of misleading Parliament over Afghan data breach
The Liberal Democrats have said the Defence Secretary John Healey appears to have misled Parliament over the Afghan data breach – and must “urgently come before Parliament to answer the question of whether he knowingly misled MPs and the public”.
Only three days ago John Healey told MPs in the House of Commons that no serving member of the armed forces had been put at risk by the data loss. This comes despite it emerging yesterday that over 100 British officials, including members of the special forces and MI6, were compromised in a data breach.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey called on the Defence Secretary to urgently come to Parliament and correct the record.
Responding to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Defence Committee member Ian Roome on Tuesday 15 July, John Healey said: “To the best of my knowledge and belief, no serving member of our armed forces is put at risk by the data loss.”
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
Three days ago John Healey claimed no-one serving in the armed forces was put at risk by the data breach. Today we found out that appears to be false.
We need to know if any serving members of the armed forces were impacted – and the Defence Secretary must urgently come before Parliament to answer the question of whether he knowingly misled MPs and the public.
Workforce figures: public “desperately” needs a govt focused on getting growth back on track
Voting reforms: Elon Musk-shaped hole in Government’s announcement
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Workforce figures: public “desperately” needs a govt focused on getting growth back on track
Responding to the latest workforce figures, which show the labour market continuing to weaken, with higher unemployment and slowing wage growth, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:
We can’t go on with such a sluggish economy: the Government must go for growth by reversing the jobs tax which is stifling small businesses and rip up the red tape holding back British businesses from trading with the rest of Europe. Only then will the Government unlock billions of pounds to protect public services and support struggling families.
After years of economic mismanagement by the Conservatives, the public desperately needs a government focused on getting our economy back on track – and these are the most obvious first steps to doing that.
Voting reforms: Elon Musk-shaped hole in Government’s announcement
Commenting on the Government’s announcement on voting reforms, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:
Votes at 16 is a no-brainer. Liberal Democrats have campaigned for this change for well over twenty years and so of course we welcome this decision.
However, there appears to be an Elon Musk shaped hole in the Government’s proposed changes to elections. Ministers must go much further to close the door to foreign oligarchs interfering in British politics – anything less undermines our democracy.
“There are some things that you just can’t polish.”
So I said when i spoke against the Government’s plans to bring secret courts into the area of civil law back in 2013. For some inexplicable reason, Nick Clegg had decided to agree to this dreadful proposal. The party, pretty universally, was livid. That’s one reasons why factions don’t usually work in this party. At the time, the Social Liberal Forum and Liberal Reform were at each other’s throats on economic policy but we were united in standing up for civil liberties. You can read some of the background to that here.
We’ve learned a lot about how secret courts operate in the past couple of days thanks to Lewis Goodall from the News Agents. He found himself subject to a super-injunction back in August 2023 when he learned about the leaking of a data set containing the contact details of everyone who had applied to come to this country under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. These were people, 18000 of them, who had worked for the UK Government while we were in Afghanistan and who had targets on their back when the Taliban took over.
Anyway, Goodall is a serious, responsible journalist. When he discovered this story, he went to the Ministry of Defence, making it clear that he had no plans to publish. That didn’t matter. The resulting super injunction was in force until this Tuesday at noon. The second it was lifted, Goodall got out all the stress of the previous 23 months out in a blistering podcast which revealed:
Secret courts and secret courts within secret courts
How many of the 18000 people and their families the Tory Government actually planned to help. Spoiler, it’s less than you think, despite this being the main legal rationale for the super-injunction
How Tory ministers avoided pushing this forward, silencing scrutiny
How much this cost the public purse
How the first judge to hear the case actually suggested to the Government that they go for a super-injunction
If you listen to nothing else today, listen to this now because it shows a chilling use of government power which, the Judge openly remarked, stopped democracy. Judge Martin Chamberlain said it was:
fundamentally objectionable for decisions that affect the lives and safety of thousands of human beings, and involve the commitment of billions of pounds of public money, to be taken in circumstances where they are completely insulated from public debate.
So what have Liberal Democrats had to say about all of this:
Matt Wardman I think Iain makes an interesting challenge, but we are not in a position to judge Labour nationally.
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