Former Burnham-On-Sea MP James Heappey, who previously served as Armed Forces Minister, has publicly apologised following revelations of a major data breach that potentially endangered thousands of Afghans who supported British forces.
The breach, which occurred in 2022 but only came to light last week after the lifting of a super injunction, involved the accidental emailing of a sensitive list containing the personal details of 18,714 Afghan nationals, along with British Special Forces and MI6 officers.
The list was mistakenly sent by a Ministry of Defence official who believed it contained just 150 names of people being considered for relocation to the UK.
Mr Heappey was the Armed Forces Minister at the time of a massive data leak that potentially put thousands of Afghans on a Taliban ‘kill list’.
The error came to light in 2023, the year before Mr Heappey stood down as an MP, but has only just been made known to the public following the lifting of a super injunction.
He’s posted on social media: “It was gut-wrenching to find out that someone in the Ministry of Defence had screwed up so awfully although I came to find subsequently they were incredibly dedicated to those we served in Afghanistan.”
“Few had done more to get people who served alongside our Special Forces out of Afghanistan. It is incredibly unfair that someone who’d done so much good and changed so many lives deservedly for the better, should be responsible.”
“But the worst part of all, of course, was the mortal danger we feared this breach presented to applicants whose intelligence assessment was clear: if the Taliban got their hands on the list, violent and even lethal reprisal was likely.”
“The Ministry of Defence was magnificent in response to it all. But on this breach, we let the country down badly.”
Mr Heappey supported the introduction of the super injunction as a way of protecting those named in the data leak, although he played no part in setting it up. He also said the breach led to massive rows between ministers and “some pretty choice words” in meetings.
It emerged last week that, in response to the leak, a secret scheme was set up to relocate thousands of Afghans to the UK, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of billions of pounds.
Mr Heappey represented the Burnham and Highbridge area as the Conservative MP in Parliament between 2015 and 2024, when he decided not to seek re-election.
