Suella Braverman MP has posted a statement on Afghanistan to X:
My statement on the Afghan leak
Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP
Member of Parliament for Fareham and Waterlooville
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Statement on Afghanistan leak
In the noise and political chaos of Westminster, I've always promised to be straight-talking and honest, so that is what I am doing now. There are some basic facts which the public needs to know and should have known from the start.
First, if a court issues an injunction relating to the government, Ministers are prohibited from speaking publicly about the specific issues. The public rightly understands that adhering to injunctions is important to uphold the rule of law. Anyone who is claiming that those who have left Government, could or should have 'blown the whistle' before the injunction was lifted does not understand our legal or political system. Like the media, many of us have been unable to speak on this for a long time.
Second, and for context, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was launched in April 2024 for those Afghan nationals affected by the leak. This was after I had left the Government, and I was not involved in its set up or functioning. The ARR should not be confused with the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) which was set up in 2021 to take in Afghan nationals who helped British troops in Afghanistan.
Third, the mistaken data leak came from inside the Ministry of Defence. I was not a Minister at that department and have had no responsibility for officials working there. There is much more that needs to be said about the conduct of the MoD, both ministers and officials, and the House of Commons is the right place to do so. I hope we have the opportunity soon.
Fourth, the then Defence Secretary applied for the superinjunction. As Home Secretary, I was not involved in that decision or application.
Fifth, as Home Secretary in 2023 I opposed Ministry of Defence plans to bring in 24,000 Afghan nationals. The Home Office, during 2022 and 2023, was working to reduce the asylum backlog and reduce the number of asylum hotels that were being used as accommodation. Through meticulous work in 2022/23, we managed to shut down approximately 100 asylum hotels.
What's worse is that all who have now arrived here will be able to bring their families under Article 2 of the ECHR, which we must leave to become a serious self-governing country again that protects its borders and our people. I will have more to say about this soon.
Sixth and last, I left office in November 2023 because the then Prime Minister would not do what we had promised to do about stopping the boats, cutting legal migration and policing hate marches. There were many issues which I disagreed with him on, and I was not able to support the Cabinet in many of its decisions.
What has happened is outrageous and must never happen again. We must therefore be very clear about what that was and how it happened. The ARAP scheme-which helped rescue soldiers and translators who had served alongside our brave British soldiers that fought and died in Afghanistan-is not the same as the ARR scheme established after I had left the Government.
In all this disgraceful betrayal of the people by their own government, I feel only shame. I, and a handful of others, fought this: but we failed to stop it. This is why on election night last year I apologised for what we had got wrong. This is why I warned about the direction we were heading in back in 2023. The last Conservative government let you down. The cover-up was wrong, the super injunction was wrong, and the failure to stop unwanted mass immigration has been unforgivable. So, I am sorry: the Conservative government failed you and its leaders let you down. It wasn't good enough then. It's not good enough now.
This episode exposes everything wrong with the Westminster establishment. The State apparatus thinks it can hide its failures behind legal technicalities while ordinary people pay the price. I understand your anger, and I share it. The people who have run this country so badly need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Those responsible must be held accountable, and the system that enabled this cover-up must be dismantled.
Suella Braverman
Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP
Member of Parliament for Fareham & Waterlooville
https://twitter.com/SuellaBraverman/status/1945481895040442631
