Boris Johnson has proved himself incapable of leadership by leaving behind hundreds of people behind in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban, furious MPs have claimed.
The Tory Prime Minister faced strong criticism in the Commons over his handling of the Afghan crisis as he finally put a figure on the number of people left behind when western forces made their chaotic evacuation.
Johnson told MPs on their first day back in the Commons after the recess that 311 people on the UK government’s Afghan resettlement scheme for those who helped the military were left behind in Kabul, of which 192 had “responded to the call put out”.
Johnson said the UK will do “everything possible” to help Afghans and others entitled to resettle in the UK.
He told the Commons: “Let me say to anyone who we’ve made commitments to and who is currently in Afghanistan: we are working urgently with our friends in the region to secure safe passage and as soon as routes are available we will do everything possible to help you to reach safety.”
But Labour’s Keir Starmer told MPs that hundreds of other Afghans with links to western governments and aid agencies had been left behind.
He said: “Because of this lack of leadership, the Government has left many behind to whom we owe so much.”
He added: “The Government doesn’t even know how many UK nationals and Afghan nationals eligible under the Arap scheme have been left behind to the cruelty of the Taliban. A national disgrace.”
Starmer said there is no international agreement on the resettlement of Afghan refugees, adding: “We have a Prime Minister incapable of international leadership just when we needed it most.”
Johnson gave details of the 311 people eligible to come to the UK from Afghanistan through a special resettlement scheme in response to questions form the SNP’s Iain Blackford MP.
He said: “I repeat, we will do absolutely everything we can to ensure that those people get the safe passage that they deserve using the levers that I have described.”
Johnson also said he was happy to meet with devolved administrations to collaborate on Afghan resettlements in a “four-nations summit” suggested weeks ago by Blackford
He also committed to answering by Monday night all emails from angry MPs who found that their calls for assistance with evacuating Afghans were being ignored.
The Prime Minister said: “By close of play today, every single one of the emails from colleagues around this House will be answered and thousands have already been done.”
Blackford said: There is barely an MP in this House who hasn’t submitted urgent and sensitive information to the Foreign Office on UK and Afghan nationals desperate to find safe passage away from the Taliban.”
“It is a disgrace that most of those urgent queries have been left unresolved or unanswered.”
The SNP Westminster leader also turned fire on Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who sat silently in the Commons as the PM batted away questions.
“Normally we have a cabinet minister sent to the House to cover for the Prime Minister, but today we have before us a Prime Minister desperately trying to cover for a Foreign Secretary who should have been sacked weeks ago.”
The SNP’s Stephen Flynn MP went a step further when asking why Raab went on holiday to Crete despite concerns being raised in July over the future of Afghanistan.
The Aberdeen South MP added: “When’s he going to find a backbone and resign?”
But Raab, who cut a forlorn figure on the government benches, replied: “He referred to the risk report that the management board received in July, it’s a standard monthly report, it goes to senior officials."
“What the July document made clear was that our central planning assumption at the time was the peace process in Afghanistan would probably run for a further six months.
“So we followed all that advice while at the same time preparing our contingency plans for the evacuation.”
