James Heappey
Really Useful Knowledge: how Starmer trumped a Tory crisis
I’m hardly a fan of Alastair Campbell but he clearly did run an efficient news management operation in the early New Labour period. By contrast its unclear who is running Starmer’s operation.
The Telegraph, not noted in recent times for its devotion to news rather than views has the story about Tory Cabinet infighting in 2023 over Afghans who worked for the UK and who had a right to expect protection when the Taliban took over.
This story is not currently leading the news because Starmer decided it was a good idea to remove the Whip from four ‘persistent rebel’ MPs and therefore trumped, as it were, the headlines.
Starmer is an Arsenal fan so he will know well how the team regularly manage to rescue draws and defeats from what appear to be winning positions.
Telegraph story (Gordon Rayner)
Inside the Cabinet Office briefing room, or Cobra for short, defence minister James Heappey was trying and failing to persuade the country’s most senior ministers to back a secret airlift of thousands of Afghans to the UK.
An impassioned Mr Heappey, who had fought in Afghanistan as an Army officer, insisted that Afghan soldiers’ lives had been put in danger by a data leak of 18,900 names, and he needed the help of other government departments to sort out the mess.
His colleagues were unmoved. Not only did they make it clear it was his problem, they also expressed grave reservations about the scheme, which quickly turned into a full-blown row in the summer of 2023.
Accusations of “total incompetence” by the Ministry of Defence would later be made, as well as claims that Mr Heappey was using “emotional blackmail” on his colleagues.
Their objections were manifold: quite apart from the staggering cost of the scheme, which could run into billions, there were legitimate concerns about national security and logistics.
Among those who raised objections were Sir James Cleverly, who was foreign secretary and then home secretary; Suella Braverman, who preceded Sir James in the Home Office; Michael Gove, the communities secretary, and Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, it is understood.
Yet the secret scheme, codenamed Operation Rubific, went ahead, with no scrutiny from the public, Parliament or the media, thanks to a super-injunction that not only threatened imprisonment to anyone who uttered a word in public about what was going on, but also, until it was lifted on Tuesday, prevented any reporting of the arguments it caused in the Cabinet.
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