MPs from all sides lined up today to blast Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister bizarrely claimed he "foresaw" the fall of Afghanistan.
The Tory leader brazenly said Britain had "succeeded that core mission" of the Afghanistan invasion 20 years ago - removing Al Qaeda from the country.
Boris Johnson insisted Britain would honour its "enduring commitment" to Afghans.
But with Covid rules scrapped, a recalled Parliament was packed for the first time in 17 months - and anger bubbled over at the unfolding disaster in the capital Kabul.
The Taliban swept in while the PM and Foreign Secretary were both on holiday, undoing a 20-year military campaign that cost 457 British troops' lives.
Labour leader Keir Starmer fumed: "The lack of planning is unforgivable and the Prime Minister bears a heavy responsibility. He was in a position to lead - but he didn’t."
Ex-PM Theresa May said: "This has been a major setback for British foreign policy. We boast about Global Britain - but where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul?"
Of British troops she added: “The politicians sent them there, the politicians decided to withdraw, the politicians must be responsible for the consequences.”
Despite the session being extended to eight hours, today's debate will have little concrete impact and the PM will not face detailed questions through the day.
But backbench Conservatives opened the session by blasting the failure of intelligence and strategy - while opposition MPs questioned whether the PM's pledge to rehome 20,000 refugees, only 5,000 this year, was enough.
Tory MP Mark Harper raised Boris Johnson's claim on July 8 that there was no military path to victory for the Taliban.
He said: "There has clearly been a catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares."
Yet despite his own Foreign Secretary saying "no one saw this coming", Boris Johnson said: "I think it would be fair to say the events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicted.
"What is not true is to say the UK government was unprepared or did not foresee this. Because it was certainly part of our planning.
"The very difficult logistical operation for withdrawal of UK nationals has been under preparation for many months.
"The decision to commission the emergency handling centre at the airport took place two weeks ago."
Labour MP Angela Eagle retorted that the PM and Dominic Raab had both been on holiday as the Taliban marched into Kabul.
Other Tory MPs also questioned the government's strategy.
Former minister Tobias Ellwood demanded an independent formal inquiry into the conduct in Afghanistan, fuming: "We are ceding back the country to the very insurgency we went to defeat in the first place."
Yet Mr Johnson rejected his call, saying "most of the key questions have already been extensively gone into".
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, was applauded after an emotional speech.
MPs fell silent as he recalled “a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier - carrying this child into our fire base and begging for help.
"There was nothing we could do. It was over. This is what defeat looks like when you no longer have the choice of how to help.
"This doesn't need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it."
He also launched an excoriating attack on US President Joe Biden for trying to blame the Afghan army - tens of thousands of whom died.
He said: "To see their commander in chief call into the question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran is shameful.
"Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have."
Labour leader Keir Starmer said: "It's been a disastrous week - an unfolding tragedy."
He said "the Prime Minister's judgement on Afghanistan has been appalling", and while "nobody believes Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely", the US agreement to withdraw was made in February 2020.
"We’ve had 18 months to prepare and plan for the consequences of what followed," he said.
"The lack of planning is unforgivable and the Prime Minister bears a heavy responsibility. He was in a position to lead - but he didn’t."
The Labour leader said Boris Johnson's last visit to Afghanistan was to avoid a vote on Heathrow expansion.
And he savaged the Tories' aid cuts to the region last year which were "short sighted, small minded and a threat to security."
After Mr Johnson cut short his break in the West Country after one day, but Dominic Raab stayed abroad until Sunday evening, Mr Starmer said: "The Prime Minister’s response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday.”
He added: "You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach!"
He branded the fall of Afghanistan "the cost of careless leadership" adding he had taken his "eye off the ball" and been "astonishingly careless".
"Why was the PM so careless? Why did he fail to lead?" he declared.
The Prime Minister hinted that, alongside the scheme to rehome 20,000 refugees over the coming years, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) - which is urgently removing Afghans who aided the British directly - could be doubled to help 10,000.
Tory MP John Baron had urged him to save those who helped the British Council, saying: "Because many are in fear of their lives, of retribution from the Taliban.
"The ARAP scheme is slow-moving at the moment. Will he commit the necessary resource - because the window of opportunity is narrow and no one must be left behind."
Tory former prime minister Theresa May said it was "incomprehensible and worrying" that the UK was not able to bring together a solution between nations.
"“Was our intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate?
“Or did we just feel we had to follow the US and hope on a wing and a prayer that it would be all right on the night," she said.
She asked the PM if he had discussed with NATO "the possibility of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace the American support in Afghanistan?"
But Mr Johnson replied: “I do not believe deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option… that would commend itself either to the British people or to this House.
"We must deal with the position as it now is, accepting what we’ve achieved and what we’ve not achieved."
There was anger as ex-minister Sir Desmond Swayne tried to turn the tables on Labour leader Keir Starmer.
He said: "Were the Government of this kingdom to be overthrown by a wicked and brutal regime, I venture that he would want a leading role in the resistance, he wouldn't be queuing at the airport would he?"
Mr Starmer replied: "When I was director of public prosecutions I had some of my prosecutors in Afghanistan at huge risk working on counterterrorism with other brave souls there. So I won't take that from him or anybody else."
Meanwhile Mr Johnson said "it would be a mistake for any country to recognise a new regime in Kabul" unless it was part of a joint approach by many nations.
"We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes and by actions, rather than by its words," he said - but did not rule out formally recognising the Taliban.
