Operation Rubific eventually saw 24,000 Afghans relocated to the UK, at a cost of billions of pounds to the taxpayer, in the "biggest covert evacuation operation in peacetime", said The Spectator.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage launched a scathing attack of the scheme, saying he could not think of a “better example of the total incompetence and dishonesty” of the British government than “this Afghan scandal”.

Watch: Daughter of Afghan translator involved in leak speaks to Newsnight Thousands of Afghans have moved to the UK under a secret scheme which was set up after a British official inadvertently leaked their data,