Grant Shapps accused of 'rewriting history' after former defence secretary says gagging order that prevented Mail revealing Afghan data leak could have been lifted... but he was the one who kept it in place
The former defence secretary told the BBC he thought the draconian gagging order could have been lifted last summer – but the Daily Mail can reveal he was the one keeping it going.
He also appeared to suggest it was judges who decided to keep the Speaker of the House of Commons in the dark. However, the Mail has the memo showing it was Sir Grant who blocked it.
The super-injunction meant Mail journalists faced jail if they revealed the Afghan data breach scandal or even told anyone there was an injunction.
In May last year, High Court judge Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled in secret that the 'continued stifling of public debate' was not justified and the injunction should be lifted.
He said: 'Open justice is a cardinal constitutional principle', and warned that Sir Grant's unprecedented super-injunction would make people suspect 'the court's processes are being used for the purposes of censorship'.
The then defence secretary responded by hiring one of Britain's most expensive KCs, Sir James Eadie, to overturn the judge's decision and prolong the super-injunction.
Sir James told three Appeal Court judges in June that lifting the injunction would 'bring the house down', and they backed Sir Grant's bid to keep the public in the dark.
The former defence secretary told the BBC he thought the draconian gagging order could have been lifted last summer – but the Daily Mail can reveal he was the one keeping it going as seen in a memo (above)
Open justice is a cardinal constitutional principle'
Mr Justice Chamberlain
The secrecy went on until Tuesday this week, with the Mail and others spending two years fighting in locked courtrooms for open justice.
Yesterday Sir Grant told Radio 4's Today programme he was 'surprised it's lasted quite so long', adding: 'I'd thought that it was probably going to come to an end last summer, the autumn perhaps at maximum.'
Regarding whether the Speaker should be briefed, Sir Grant said: 'Who was briefed was decided by conversations with the judges', although he went on to acknowledge the judges were keen for the Speaker to be briefed.
Yet an official memo dated November 16, 2023 – three months after the data blunder was discovered – records him as saying: 'I would not widen the circle by briefing others – so not agreed [to brief Speaker...].'
A Whitehall source said: 'Shapps is trying to rewrite history. Everyone knows he was the one personally demanding to keep the super-injunction in place after the election was called last summer.'
The database at the heart of the super-injunction scandal, seen by the Daily Mail, contains details of 18,800 Afghans
Meanwhile Downing Street has defended current Defence Secretary John Healey over accusations that he misled Parliament.
No 10 said his statement to the Commons on Tuesday, in which he said that 'to the best of my knowledge' no serving Armed Forces personnel were put at risk by the breach, was 'accurate'.
Opposition critics have demanded he 'correct the record' after it was reported days later that MI6 spies and members of the SAS were among those named on the dataset.
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