Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle knew about Afghan knowledge leak and will have made ministers inform MPs, Dame Harriet Harman has claimed.
Chatting with Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the Labour peer mentioned the Speaker – whose job she ran for in 2019 – ought to have requested for a key choose committee to be made conscious.
A spokesperson for the Speaker mentioned he was “himself under a super-injunction” and so “would have been under severe legal restrictions”.
A large knowledge breach by the British navy that was solely made public this week uncovered the non-public data of shut to twenty,000 Afghan people, endangering them and their households.
Successive governments tried to maintain the leak secret with a super-injunction, which means the UK solely knowledgeable everybody affected on Tuesday – three-and-a-half years after their knowledge was compromised.
The breach occurred in February 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, however was solely found by the British navy in August 2023.
A brilliant-injunction which prevented the reporting of the error, was imposed in September of that yr.
The earlier Conservative authorities arrange a secret scheme in 2023 – which may solely now be revealed – to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the information breach however who weren’t eligible for an current programme to relocate and help people who had labored for the British authorities in Afghanistan.
Some 6,900 Afghans – comprising 1,500 folks named on the listing in addition to their dependents – are being relocated to the UK as a part of this programme.
Dame Harriet mentioned: “The Speaker was warned, ‘If somebody’s going to say something which breaches this injunction, will you please shut them up straight away if an MP does this’, and he agreed to do that.
“However what he ought to have finished on the time is he ought to have mentioned however parliamentary accountability is essential. I am the Speaker. I will arise for parliamentary accountability. And you will need to inform the Intelligence and Safety Committee and permit them to carry you to account.
“What’s happened now is now that this is out in the open, the Intelligence and Security Committee is going to look at everything. So, it will be able to see all the papers from the MoD [Ministry of Defence].”
Picture:
Speaker of the Home Lindsay Hoyle. Pic: Reuters
Pressed on whether or not she meant the Speaker had did not do his job, Dame Harriet replied: “Yes, and it’s a bit invidious for me to be saying that because, of course, at that time, Lindsay Hoyle was elected a speaker, I myself ran to be speaker, and the House chose him rather than me.
“So it’s kind of dangerous to make this proposal to anyone who really received an election you did not win. However really, if you consider the Speaker’s position to face up for parliament, to make it possible for authorities is correctly scrutinised, whenever you’ve received a committee there, which is safety cleared to the very best stage, appointed by the prime minister, and whose job is precisely to do that.”
A spokesperson for the Speaker mentioned: “As has been made clear, Mr Speaker was himself under a super-injunction, and so would have been under severe legal restrictions regarding speaking about this.
“He would have had no consciousness which organisations or people had been and weren’t already conscious of this matter.
“The injunction could not constrain proceedings in parliament and between being served with the injunction in September 2023 and the 2024 general election, Mr Speaker granted four Urgent Questions on matters relating to Afghan refugees and resettlement schemes.
“Moreover, as set out within the Justice and Safety Act 2013, the Speaker has no powers to refer issues to the Intelligence and Safety Committee.”
