The multi-billion pound plan to bring thousands of Afghans to UK signed off in secret - as Chancellor faces huge pressure over taxes
The government signed off plans to spend £7 billion of taxpayers’ money on bringing 25,000 Afghans whose personal details were leaked to the UK.
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The projected cost was signed off by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and other senior Cabinet ministers on October 7 last year - according to papers shown to the High Court.
The sum dwarfs the recent benefits row and winter fuel U-turn.
Significant policy decisions were made affecting the budget, housing and immigration policy without any parliamentary scrutiny.
Read more: How the UK silenced a scandal: My two year battle to reveal the truth by Lewis Goodall
The estimated cost to the taxpayer of resettling Afghans - between £5.5bn and £6bn, has come from the Treasury reserve. MoD lawyers told the High Court that £7bn had originally been set aside.
There is also an uncertain future bill over compensation payments. One law firm in Manchester has already found more than 900 people ready to sue to Government over having their lives put at risk due to the leak - with each individual possibly in line to receive £50,000 or more.
The scheme set up as a result of the leak - the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) - will be closed from today.
It is believed that the scheme was closed ahead of the lifting of the superinjunction so that there could not be a rush of further applicants once news of the data breach became public.
The shocking revelations are set to overshadow Ms Reeves’ Mansion House speech tonight, where the Chancellor is already facing pressure over raised taxes in the autumn to balance the budget books.
At her speech later today the Chancellor is expected to address plans surrounding financial services, pensions and investment.
The speech is used to address the government's future plans for the industry and its next steps for regulation.
Ms Reeves is understood to be planning to vow to cut “reams of financial red tape” - it is unclear whether she will alter her speech in any way to reflect the developments of the Afghan relocation scheme.
It is also unclear whether the multi-billion pound cost of the scheme and any future legal bills will be factored into the Government’s budget in the Autumn or whether taxes will have to rise to pay for it - as the superinjunction has prevented proper scrutiny.
The government is already facing huge pressure over the cost of housing asylum seekers, which has risen to £4m a day.
Economists have already warned that the £9.9bn headroom Ms Reeves has to balance the books has already been wiped out.
According to briefing documents, officials secured 1,400 bed spaces in hotels in West Sussex and other accommodation in Preston, Aberdeen and Cardiff.
How did the relocation plan work?
- The covert airlift codenamed Operation Rubific was launched after the MoD lost a database of Afghans who applied for sanctuary in the UK.
- Ministers set up a secret peacetime evacuation mission to relocate people whose lives they mistakenly put at risk
- 18,500 Afghans whose data was compromised were flown to Britain or are due to come here
- They are being housed in MOD homes or hotels until permanent homes can be found
- Unmarked charter flights have been landing at airports including Stansted and RAF Brize Norton
- Hours before the superinjunction was lifted, ministers began drastically scaling back the scheme and closed it at short notice
Speaking to MPs today, Defence Secretary John Healey offered a "sincere apology" for the massive data breach which exposed details of Afghans who had helped British troops, triggering the secret evacuation scheme and an unprecedented legal cover-up.