Sir Grant Shapps has defended the government’s decision to hide the catastrophic Afghan data leak from the public, arguing the decision saved lives. The former defence secretary said a ...

Sir Grant Shapps has defended his decision to keep an unprecedented legal gagging order in place over the Afghan data leak under the previous government, saying he would “walk over hot coals to ...

Sir Grant Shapps has said he was “surprised” the superinjunction to keep the huge Afghan data breach secret was in place for “so long” – despite fighting to keep the gagging order in place.

Sir Grant told the BBC: “You can argue that actually, that circle should be wider, but in the end, the number one priority was to make sure that we protected lives and people weren’t murdered.

In his first interview since it became public, Sir Grant told the BBC erring on the side of caution was "entirely justified", adding his focus had been "sorting out the mess and saving lives".