Dominic Raab prepares to face grilling from MPs over Afghanistan
Dominic Raab will today face a grilling from MPs over how he handled the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan and the subsequent evacuation of British nationals and refugees.
The foreign secretary will face questions for 90 minutes from the Foreign Affairs Committee over intelligence failures relating to the takeover of Afghanistan, British nationals who have been left behind and the UK’s future relationship with the Taliban.
One of the key issues will be around why western nations were unaware of how quickly the Taliban would take the capital of Kabul, after Joe Biden confirmed the complete US withdrawal from the country.
He will also be questioned on why hundreds of British nationals and Afghans eligible for asylum were left behind, after UK-led evacuations finished yesterday.
Committee chair Tom Tugendhat told Politico three key questions asked will be: “How will we deal with the Taliban? How will Afghanistan shape our regional strategy? How will the government hold the Taliban to account for reverses in human rights?”
Raab has been under fire over the past two weeks, after it was initially revealed that he remained on holiday in Crete when Kabul fell to the Taliban.
It was also revealed that he refused to take calls about the crisis while on holiday, instead passing them over to junior ministers.
Labour has called for Raab to be sacked and there have also been reports that Boris Johnson is prepared to demote him in the next reshuffle.
In the past few days the foreign secretary has engaged in a war of words with the Ministry of Defence over the UK’s Afghanistan evacuation shortcomings.
Yesterday he told LBC that “no department” had done more to aid the evacuation than the Foreign Office and that it was a “military intelligence” failure that led to the slow response to the crisis.
A government source told The Times that Raab was trying to “throw the MoD under a bus” and that he is “just plain wrong” about intelligence failures being solely their fault.
Labour MP, and Foreign Affairs Committee member, Neil Coyle told the FT that Raab “needs to explain why thousands of UK citizens and allies have been left behind despite 18 months warning of the need to leave”.
“He also needs to explain why the UK appears so isolated, with the US not informing our government of its decision to abandon Bagram [air base] and refusing to extend the Kabul airport evacuation deadline,” he said.