A DATA leak which resulted in an £850 million secret relocation scheme for Afghan refugees and an unprecedented legal gagging order will be subject to a parliamentary inquiry.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused former Tory ministers today of having “serious questions to answer” over the fiasco.

Commons defence committee chairman Tan Dhesi said that the probe’s terms will be announced after the summer recess and will “ascertain exactly what transpired here, given the serious ramifications on so many levels.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One it was a “huge concern” that a super injunction over the data breach, which saw a defence official release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban, was in place for more than two years.

It only emerged that thousands of people are being relocated to Britain as part of a scheme set up after the breach of the court order was lifted on Tuesday.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “We warned in opposition about Conservative management of this policy and yesterday, the Defence Secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited: a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

“Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.”

Tory former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said that he makes “no apology” for applying for the initial injunction and insisted it was “not a cover-up” but was motivated by the need to protect people in Afghanistan whose safety was at risk.