Dominic Raab prepares for showdown with MPs over Afghanistan crisis

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Dominic Raab today revealed he is set to fly to the region around Afghanistan this afternoon as he faced a grilling by MPs over his handling of the UK’s exit from Kabul. 

The Foreign Secretary told MPs that he will head to the area following his crunch appearance in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. 

Mr Raab’s appearance in front of the committee came amid a worsening Whitehall blame game. 

The evidence session got off to a bruising start as Tory chairman Tom Tugendhat demanded to know which ministers had visited countries in the region in recent months but Mr Raab was unable to say. 

Mr Tugendhat pressed the Foreign Secretary on the UK’s preparations for leaving Afghanistan amid criticism that the Taliban swept to power far quicker than had been predicted. 

Mr Raab said the ‘central assessment remained until late that the deterioration would be incremental’. 

He said the planning for the end of the military departure from the country had begun in April and insisted that contingency planning for a more ‘rapid deterioration’ had also been worked up. 

Mr Tugendhat had set the tone for Mr Raab’s appearance as he said the UK and US exit from Kabul had left people ‘defenceless in front of armed gangs’. 

Meanwhile, other members of the committee have described the UK’s withdrawal from the country as the ‘worst crisis since Suez’ while Labour said it is the ‘biggest foreign policy failing in a generation’. 

Mr Raab yesterday defended his handling of the situation and took aim at his critics as he appeared to blame the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office for some of the Government’s failings. 

The Foreign Secretary has been widely tipped to be sacked at Boris Johnson’s next Cabinet reshuffle and today’s appearance in front of MPs could be crucial to his hopes of clinging on.  

Westminster is braced for the clash between Mr Raab and Mr Tugendhat, with the latter having been a vocal critic of the handling of the withdrawal and the overall decision to leave the country. 

The former soldier said last week that the exit from Afghanistan and the decision to leave many Afghan allies behind means Britain could face the ‘biggest hostage crisis the UK has ever seen’. 

Mr Tugendhat said the UK and the US had been ‘defeated’ and ‘this is what defeat looks like’ after the Taliban completed its takeover of the country. 

The Tory heavyweight warned yesterday that the manner of the departure from Afghanistan risked another war. 

Responding to a US politician who tweeted ‘ending wars is good actually’, Mr Tugendhat said: ‘Ending wars is good. Leaving people defenceless in front of armed gangs is not how you end a war, it’s how you start a new one.  

Mr Raab is expected to be quizzed about the Government’s preparations for the end of the deployment in Afghanistan, its handling of the evacuation operation and its plans for dealing with the Taliban in the future. 

He is also likely to be challenged over how many British nationals and UK allies were left behind and over his decision to delay his return from a family holiday to Crete as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated. 

Mr Raab said yesterday that the number of British nationals still in the country is in the ‘low hundreds’ but the Government has not given a concrete figure for how many Afghans who helped UK forces have been left behind. 

Government sources have predicted that Mr Raab will be ‘toast’ at the next reshuffle. 

The Foreign Secretary launched a fight back yesterday as he lashed out his critics and appeared to point the finger at other departments for failings. 

Responding to a series of negative anonymous briefings against him, Mr Raab said those people making the remarks were ‘not credible’ and the timing of them during the airlift was ‘deeply irresponsible’.  

The Foreign Office has been accused of leaving hundreds of emails from people stuck in Afghanistan unopened but Mr Raab said those email accounts were actually the responsibility of the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence.         

He also risked MOD fury as he said the ‘military’ assessment of how quickly the Taliban would seize control of the country was ‘clearly wrong’. 

Government sources last night accused Mr Raab of trying to ‘throw the MOD under a bus’. 

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said yesterday that Mr Johnson has ‘full confidence in his Foreign Secretary’ and there are ‘no plans’ for a reshuffle.  

However, Mr Raab remains fighting for his political career with reports suggesting Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, is being lined up to replace him.  

Lisa Nandy, Labour shadow foreign secretary, said Mr Raab has questions to answer on ‘much more than the chaos of the last two weeks’.

‘This has been the biggest foreign policy failing in a generation,’ Ms Nandy said.

‘The Foreign Secretary has serious questions to answer when he appears before the Foreign Affairs Committee.’

Ms Nandy added: ‘The Foreign Secretary had 18 months to prepare but was missing in action.

‘As a result, on his watch Britain has become weaker in the world and faces greater risks from terrorism.’

Mr Raab’s committee appearance comes after it emerged British officials had opened formal talks with the Taliban about getting UK citizens and allies out of Afghanistan. 

Special envoy Sir Simon Gass, the chair or the Joint Intelligence Committee, met senior representatives of the group in Qatar to try to secure safe passage for those left behind following the chaotic military withdrawal. 

Officers from MI6 also met the militia group, while the head of MI6 Richard Moore flew to Islamabad for talks with the head of the Pakistani army.  

Downing Street confirmed ‘broad discussions’ with the Taliban had got under way.

A government source said: ‘The Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, has travelled to Doha and is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked with us over the past 20 years.’

Sources declined to comment further on the talks. But ministers have made clear that future aid payments and the unfreezing of assets will depend on the Taliban’s willingness to facilitate safe passage and respect human rights.

Talks with the group are likely to be controversial however, given the radical group’s record and the threats to many Afghan translators who worked with British forces. 

It came as the Home Office said around 10,000 refugees from Afghanistan who risked their lives to help British forces would be allowed to live and work indefinitely in the UK.