Boris Johnson was branded “incapable of international leadership” as he admitted to MPs hundreds of Afghans who were eligible to seek refuge in the UK had been left behind.
Sir Keir Starmer led the attack on the Government’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis insisting the Prime Minister was “complacent and wrong” to underestimate the strength of the Taliban.
The Labour leader thanked those involved in the evacuation (Operation Pitting) and said their efforts were even more remarkable because Mr Johnson’s “political leadership was missing in action”.
Sir Keir told the Commons, “we have a prime minister incapable of international leadership, just when we need it most.”
“History will tell the tale of Operation Pitting as one of immense bravery.
“We are proud of all those who contributed, their story made even more remarkable by the fact whilst they were saving lives our political leadership was missing in action.”
Speaking to the Commons on the first day back after summer recess the Prime Minister admitted 311 Afghans who were left behind are eligible to be resettled under the ARAP scheme.
Mr Johnson said the UK will do “everything possible” to help Afghans and others entitled to resettle in the UK.
“Let me say to anyone who we’ve made commitments to and who are 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,” he told the Commons.
He went on to make a bold commitment that all emails from MPs calling for assistance with evacuating Afghans will be responded to by the end of Monday.
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.”
More than 15,000 people were airlifted to safety through Operation Pitting, in the largest evacuation effort since the Second World War.
Sir Keir said British troops who helped evacuate desperate people from Afghanistan should be awarded military medals.
The Labour leader called for a change to the rules to honour soldiers who helped Brits and vulnerable Afghans to safety as the Taliban seized control of Kabul.
The two-week operation falls short of the 30 days of continuous service required under strict rules for military medals.
Unsurprisingly Mr Johnson defended the UK’s 20 years of military action in Afghanistan.
He urged anyone tempted to say that “we achieved nothing in that country” to learn “our armed forces and those of our allies enabled 3.6 million girls to go to school, tell them that this country and the western world were protected from al Qaeda in Afghanistan throughout that period”.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May noted the “terrorist threat has increased” and asked Mr Johnson to ensure the Government’s counter-terrorism work will be given enough support to keep the country safe.
“We have no direct information as yet of any increase to the threat but I can assure her and the House that every effort will be made to make sure that our counter-terrorist agents have the resources they need to keep us safe,” the Prime Minister replied.
The Foreign Secretary has defended the UK’s evacuation from Afghanistan, after accusations the withdrawal was “nothing short of chaotic”.
Dominic Raab has been called to resign amidst heavy criticism of his handling of the crisis.
Labour MP Clive Efford said: “The different phone numbers, the lack of information, lack of feedback, we still don’t even know whether anything that we wrote or passed in on behalf of our constituents had any affect whatsoever.”
The Foreign Secretary told MPs the UK will not recognise the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan.
Dominic Raab told the Commons: “We will not recognise the Taliban but we will engage and we will carefully calibrate our actions to the choices that they make and the actions that they take.
Responding to Labour’s Harriet Harman who warned that the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme “is going to end up as a lottery of life and death”, Mr Raab stood by their handling of the evacuation.
“Mr Raab replied: “I think she’s right to say frankly even if we doubled or tripled the quota, the number of people fleeing Afghanistan is going to outstrip what the UK would be able to take alone,” he said.
