Inside Politics: Raab missed ‘crucial phone call’ and Johnson condemned over ‘shameful failure’

Foreign secretary ‘engaged on other calls’ when asked to speak with Afghan counterpart, as PM faces fury from own MPs, writes Matt Mathers

Thursday 19 August 2021 09:05 BST

(PA)

MPs debated the Afghanistan crisis in the Commons yesterday. And while there was lots of talking and plenty of questions, there are still few answers about how to best respond to the increasingly desperate scenes coming out of Kabul and elsewhere, as Kim Sengupta vividly describes in a dispatch for The Independent from the capital’s airport. Dominic Raab holds a virtual meeting of G7 foreign ministers later as the West continues grappling with yet another foreign policy disaster.

Inside the bubble

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, today hosts a virtual meeting of G7 foreign ministers to discuss the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. Raab, who is under fire for “ignoring” a crucial phone call to get translators out of the country (more on that below), has already spoken to Anthony Blinked, the US secretary of state, about how to respond.

Coming up shortly:

-Defence secretary Ben Wallace on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

-Labour’s South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis on also on Today at 8.30am

Daily Briefing

MPs ANGER: It’s been four days now since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and the seismic events taking place there – as well as the subsequent fallout in London and Washington – continue to dominate the news agenda. Boris Johnson faced a wall of fury from all sides yesterday as MPs debated the unfolding crisis in a packed Commons chamber for the first time since the Covid pandemic struck.

TORY FURY: But it was criticism from those within his own ranks that will sting the PM most as he wakes up this morning. In an emotional speech Tom Tugendhat, an Afghanistan veteran, told of his “anger, grief and rage” and the chaotic nature of the US and British exit, as well as the abandonment of the Afghan people. Several former Tory cabinet ministers were among those expressing their frustration at Britain’s failures in intelligence and preparation. Ian Duncan Smith, former party leader, described the scenes in Afghanistan as “a shame on all of us”.

FOREIGN POLICY ‘FAILURE’: Much has been made of the UK’s place in the world post-Brexit. And Theresa May, Johnson’s No 10 predecessor, said the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan is a damning indictment of the “Global Britain” touted by the government. “I am afraid that this has been a major setback for British foreign policy,” she told MPs in the Commons. “We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words.”

MORAL DUTY: Those words splash The Independent this morning as it backs calls for more refugees to be brought safely to the UK. The government has announced that 20,000 Afghans can come to Britain, although the small print shows only 5,000 will arrive this year, in a plan that has been described as one Tory MP as “woefully inadequate.” Events in the Commons dominate this morning’s front pages, although each paper has its own take on how the day unfolded. The Telegraph and Times say MPs condemned Biden over troop withdrawal. The Guardian and Mirror say Afghanistan is a humiliation for the PM, while the Financial Times says: “PM under fire: Afghan ‘defeat’ draws anger”.

‘CRUCIAL CALL’ MISSED: Great scoop in this morning’s Mail, which reports that Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, failed to take a “crucial phone call” while the crisis unfolded as he was away on holiday. It has been well documented that Raab, who was filmed laughing in the Commons yesterday during the debate, was away as the Taliban descended on Kabul. Now the Mail story suggests he was advised by senior officials that he should talk with Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar about getting help to airlift translators out of Afghanistan. But officials were told Raab was unavailable, according to the paper. A Foreign Office spokesperson said Raab was “engaged on a range of other calls”.

DERELICTION OF DUTY: Earlier this week it was revealed that Johnson too had gone on holiday as Taliban militants encroached on Kabul. Labour has been hammering the point home, with leader Keir Starmer jibbing that you can’t coordinate an international response “from the beach”, as the government was accused of not doing enough to avert the disaster. And the party has reacted furiously to the latest development that Raab chose not to take the call on translators. Nick Thomas Symonds, the shadow home secretary, tweeted: “This is a dereliction of duty. Failing to make a call has put the lives of brave interpreters at risk, after they served so bravely with our military. Utterly shameful.”

AIRPORT HORROR: Kim Sengupta has an incredible dispatch from Kabul airport, where he reports that desperate mothers have been hurling their babies over wire fencing in a bid to get them out of the new regime. “The mothers were desperate, they were getting beaten by the Taliban. They shouted, ‘save my baby’ and threw the babies at us, some of the babies fell on the barbed wire. It was awful what happened. By the end of the night there wasn’t one man among us who was not crying,” a Parachute Regiment officer told Kim. Several people are reported to have died at the airport since the scramble to flee the Taliban started.

ON THE DEFENSIVE: In other updates, US President Joe Biden has vowed that no Americans will be left behind in Afghanistan. He has also hinted that troops may stay beyond 9/11 and says the chaos witnessed was to be expected and avoidable. The president is also refusing to admit the US made any mistakes.

On the record

“The prime minister’s response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday...the foreign secretary stayed on holiday. You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach.”

Starmer during Commons debate on Afghanistan.

From the Twitterati

“MP after MP is saying that the government should have done more to dissuade the US from its chosen action. I suspect they’re significantly overestimating the power of the British Govt to dissuade either the Trump or Biden administrations from doing what they wish to do.”