'Officials didn't know how many Afghans were eligible'

A FORMER Tory minister has said defence officials had no idea who or how many Afghans had worked with UK forces and were eligible to be resettled in Britain.

- By James Knuckey

Army veteran Sarah Atherton said that when she raised concerns about the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme she was told it was “above her pay grade”.

Ms Atherton, who was minister for defence people, veterans and service families from September to October 2022, said: “I was surprised to hear from the Civil Service that they didn’t know exactly who had worked for the British Government.

“They didn’t know the number but had tens of thousands of applications under the ARAP scheme and that was clogging down the process.