Camilla Tominey grills shadow Tory minister over ‘British taxes funding Taliban terrorists’ after shambolic Afghan data leak

The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was hastily put together after personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.

Shapps, who was Defence Secretary from 31 August to 5 July 2024, has defended the use of a super-injunction as he went about “sorting out the mess and saving lives”.

Speaking on GB News, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Hollinrake defended his ex-colleague as Camilla pressed him on “actual Taliban” potentially making their way into Britain as a result of the scheme.

“We took a lot of time to make sure the people coming here, which put some people’s lives at risk, the fact it took time, these people fought for us and the mistake happened”, he said, before Camilla pointed out that only “some” of the Afghans who have come into Britain fought alongside its troops.

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She said: “Lots of these people did not fight for Britain, they were just on a list. Should we retrospectively check every Afghan who has come into Britain and make sure their claim is legitimate?

“And if it is not legitimate, what do we do about them?”

Hollinrake said: “Well of course we should. If anyone is here illegitimately, they should be deported.

“We had a plan for that in Rwanda and this current Government scrapped it. Of course it’s difficult to deport people back to Afghanistan where the Taliban is in control, but we had a solution for these people who have come from Syria or Afghanistan, that was what Rwanda was all about.”

Camilla said: “Ben Wallace leaves office, Grant Shapps takes over, an injunction turns into a super-injunction, Shapps said last Friday he is surprised the super-injunction lasted that long, he’s the one who extended it weeks before the last general election.

“The conclusion one automatically draws is, he extended that super-injunction to avoid embarrassment before the country went to the polls.”

Hollinrake sought to defend his former colleague by pointing out that Labour extended the super-injunction eight times themselves and it was put in place to “protect lives”.

“That’s what it was there for”, he added.

“Now, I’m not close enough to that particular decision to decide where Grant Shapps is or if the Labour Government is right to extend it eight times, but I’m sure they did it for the right reasons to try and protect people’s lives.

“That’s why they did it. It’s easy for you or anyone es to stand on the sidelines and criticise, but these judgments are difficult. I have no doubt that Grant Shapps and Ben Wallace made those decisions in the right interest of UK security and the safety and security of those individuals.”

Camilla said the “execution may have been wrong” and “I’m standing from the sidelines, concerned that the taxpayer has possibly funded to an estimated tune of £6 billion importing actual Taliban terrorists to the UK.”

The shadow minister admitted he shares the same concern and “checks and balances” are in place to ensure such mishaps are properly dealt with.

“The £6 billion figure you quote is for the entire scheme, not just for the people that were the subject of this super-injunction”, he added.

“But of course, we’re concerned about that, which of course, is why we put the checks and balances in place to make sure those people were not members of the Taliban and wouldn’t pose a threat.”