Shapps said if there was any doubt, erring on the side of caution was "entirely justified", adding his focus was on "saving lives". The data of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had worked with the British during the 20-year war in Afghanistan and had applied to resettle in the UK were inadvertently leaked in February 2022.

Details of more than 100 British nationals including spies and special forces soldiers were included in one of the country's worst ever data breaches that led to thousands of Afghans being relocated t...

"I was notified two days ago and received an email from MoD about the data breach," he says.