Grant Shapps ‘surprised’ Afghan data leak kept secret for so long – despite fighting to keep media gagged - The ex-defence secretary says he was ‘surprised’ gagging order was in place for ‘so long’ -

Sir Grant Shapps has defended his decision to keep an unprecedented legal gagging order in place over the Afghan data leak under the previous government, saying he would "do the same thing all over again.

In his first comments since news of an unprecedented superinjunction was made public, the ex-Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said his focus was on 'sorting out the mess and saving lives'

The Labour peer says the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle should have insisted that the Intelligence and Security Committee were told of the leak.

Former Armed Forces minister James Heappey has shared the "gut-wrenching" moment he learned of the Afghan data leak, admitting the previous government "let the country down badly" in a long apology.

Sensitive details exposed by the huge Afghan data breach that put tens of thousands of people at risk were revealed by the defence secretary – but the media are still banned from reporting them.John Healey offered a “sincere apology” on behalf of the British Government for a massive leak which shared information about Afghans seeking to escape to the UK because of their links to British troops and could only be reported after a two-year fight to lift an unprecedented superinjunction.

Ministers in the UK's last Conservative government have "serious questions to answer" over a secret resettlement plan for thousands of Afghans after a data breach endangered their lives, Prime Ministe