Will Dominic Raab be shamed into resigning? Given this government, I very much doubt it

The foreign secretary was apparently ‘too busy’ on holiday to take a phone call that could have saved lives in Afghanistan. It’s unlikely to be enough to give up his post though

It would be fair to say it has not been an ideal few days for the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab.

First came the reports of Raab being on holiday in Crete when Kabul was falling, then came the Afghanistan debate in the Commons – where his demeanour was criticised – and he was accused of a "churlish" snub in not acknowledging the speech of Tom Tugendhat (widely regarded as one of the best in parliament this year) in his remarks winding up the session. Time may have been a factor, if you want to be charitable to the foreign secretary.

The latest this morning are reports claiming Raab was "too busy" on holiday to speak with the Afghan foreign minister. Raab has been accused of failing to ask Hanif Atmar for urgent assistance in evacuating Afghan interpreters who had worked with the British military.

To that end, the Foreign Office said: "The foreign secretary was engaged on a range of other calls and this one was delegated to another minister." And the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, told Sky News that "one phone call is not the reason we are where we are" in Afghanistan.

The holiday line had already been utilised by Labour, with Keir Starmer telling Boris Johnson in the Commons: "You cannot co-ordinate an international response from the beach." And the pressure from the opposition is only building. Starmer tweeted this morning: "Who wouldn’t make a phone call if they were told it could save somebody’s life?" The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said: "The foreign secretary should be ashamed and the prime minister has serious questions to answer over why he remains in the job." Meanwhile the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “He couldn’t even make one phone call? Why is he still in the job this morning?”

Quite the co-ordinated response. And while the Labour frontbench has stopped short of calling for the foreign secretary to resign, the backbench MP Angela Eagle was more forthright, simply tweeting: "Resign Raab".

So what can we expect? Will Raab be shamed into giving up his post? I very much doubt it – while someone like the former health secretary, Matt Hancock, resigned after he breached social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague, that was framed as a public trust issue over rules around the Covid-19 pandemic. With the amount of recriminations flying around about how Afghanistan now faces this situation given the 20 years of UK involvement, I’d speculate that Johnson will be quite happy to just ride out the storm.

I’ve long given up the idea that the government will behave how you might expect. Labour are right to look to hold Johnson and his ministers to account – especially given the lives involved. But will it cut through with the public? We will have to wait and see.

A big shift in public opinion is the only way I see the prime minister bowing to any pressure – and I’m not 100 per cent sure even then.