Revealed: How Conservative ministers have misled public amid war crimes allegations against UK Special Forces

In the middle of the intense general election campaign, I recently received a letter from a UK Government minister. I say “I” – the letter was sent to a generic public email address at SNP headquarters the day before our party’s manifesto launch, an account which was likely receiving more emails that day than in most election-free months. The letter, sent by a minister in the Ministry of Defence, told me that – once again – I had been misled by a UK Government minister in parliament.

I have spent the past five years in parliament campaigning for an investigation into allegations – reported in The Times and by the BBC – that British soldiers have been implicated in some of the most unimaginable crimes, including the murder of children and the torture of civilians, and that this was covered up by military commanders. In my campaign for democratic oversight of UK Special Forces and my attempt to eke the truth out of ministers and institutions more interested in covering their backs than public transparency, my efforts have been consistently met with stonewalling and lies.

Almost a year ago today, in these very pages, I wrote about the UK’s “no comment” policy on Special Forces – out of step with our European and Nato allies and questioned by the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the Defence Select Committee, and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee – and the damage it does to our military institutions and the people who serve in them.

Afghan troops who fought alongside UK and US forces are at risk of being killed by the Taliban regime (Picture: Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images)

Politicians must be able to probe claims UK Special Forces committed war crimes

The UK Government’s over-heavy reliance on silence and obfuscation has, time and time again, come to do far more harm than good when they are inevitably forced to come clean. This came to a head earlier in 2024, after BBC Panorama journalists uncovered credible allegations that UK Special Forces had interfered with the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap). Specifically, they had blocked resettlement applications from Afghan commandos who had served alongside UK troops.

Documents seen by the BBC show that former Afghan officers’ resettlement applications were blocked, despite providing photographs with General David Petraeus, commander of the Nato coalition and all US forces in Afghanistan; a letter from a British officer describing an applicant as part of the "UK-mentored Afghan SF” unit; photographs with two directors of UK Special Forces and a British ambassador; letters from the British embassy regarding pay; and an official invitation to SAS headquarters in Hereford to give a talk about the their work together. It is almost unfathomable that UK ministers would sign this off.

Such a veto power would represent a clear conflict of interest, granting UK Special Forces decision-making power over applications at a time when a public inquiry into alleged Special Forces war crimes in Afghanistan is underway. The public inquiry, led by the Right Honourable Lord Justice-Cave, has the authority to compel witnesses within the UK but not non-UK nationals overseas. If Afghan Special Forces members were granted visas and brought to the UK, they could provide potentially significant evidence. Blocking their visas appears to be a deliberate attempt to withhold or hide evidence from this inquiry.

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In response to these allegations, I sought clarification via a written parliamentary question and was assured by a UK Government minister that “every individual application is considered on a case-by-case basis in line with our published Arap criteria”. However, in the letter sneaked out in the middle of the campaign, minister Andrew Murrison admitted that there had been "inconsistent application of the Arap criteria to a tranche of applicants with links to former Afghan specialist units" – acknowledging that UK Special Forces had indeed blocked the visas of their Afghan counterparts.

This dramatic 180-degree reversal of the public position advanced in parliament, dragged out of a government on the cusp of its demise, is not the first time a UK Government minister has misled me in my capacity as an elected parliamentarian seeking to exercise democratic oversight over UK Special Forces. Earlier this year, documents from the inquiry revealed that minister Johnny Mercer sought – and was denied – permission from the Secretary of State to correct the record after having “been allowed to read out statements in the House of Commons that individuals in strategic appointments... knew to be incorrect”. As Mercer noted himself at the time, this is completely unacceptable – yet it continues to happen.

That this letter from the UK Government would be sneaked out in the most underhand fashion, clearly in the hope that it would go under the radar during an election campaign, is unprecedented and extraordinary. I have written to the Defence Secretary to seek clarification on the circumstances behind its sending and intend to share the letter with Lord Justice Haddon-Cave as it is clearly pertinent to his inquiry.

The letter's timing and content should have come as a greater surprise. Instead, it marks the continuation of a culture of deceit that runs through the UK Government and the institutions it oversees. As the public inquiry led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave continues, it is crucial that transparency and accountability prevail. The Afghan soldiers must be allowed to testify, and the culture of cover-ups within the Ministry of Defence must end. The public deserves nothing less than the full truth about the actions taken in their name, and those who have served alongside British forces deserve fair treatment.

While Conservative ministers have led from the front in routinely misleading Parliament and the public, there is also a clear and concerning institutional culture of cover-up in the Ministry of Defence. This must end. Those in uniform, and the public they protect, deserve better.

Stewart McDonald is SNP candidate for Glasgow South