British soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) travel during a morning patrol on a hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, 12 June 2006.
Shah Marai / AFP
Reform’s Nigel Farage says the establishment parties should “never, ever be forgiven” for their actions.
Among the thousands of Afghans offered asylum in Britain following a major data breach—kept secret for more than three years thanks to an unusually strict legal gag order—are individuals whose applications were previously rejected because of violent or sexual assaults.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage highlighted this aspect of the multifaceted scandal on Tuesday, saying that as a result, the “threat to women walking the streets of this country frankly is incalculable.”
Former broadcaster Colin Brazier added that the British state has “a poor record of rooting out those who come seeking clemency while secretly meaning us harm.”
Not just terror. By nationality, Afghans top too many crime tables.
Labour Defence Secretary John Healey insists, however, that everyone who has come into the country under this £7 billion (€8.10bn) relocation scheme has been checked “carefully” for any criminal records. Former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace—under whose government the scandal unfolded—has also been unrepentant over the whole affair.
Farage says both major establishment parties are tarred by the scandal—indeed, it has been dubbed “the kind of scandal which is perfect for Reform UK” simply because it paints everybody else in a bad light—and that “they should never, ever be forgiven.”
I can’t think of a better example of the total incompetence, dishonesty and lack—genuine lack—of understanding what the priorities of a British government are than this Afghan scandal.
The former Conservative government argued that a news blackout surrounding the leaked list of Afghan soldiers and their families was necessary to stop it falling into the hands of the Taliban. But a review has since found that the leak “may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared,” and that it was “unlikely” to have been the sole reason for a reprisal attack.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
