Raab: UK must face new Taliban reality

Dominic Raab said the UK would hold the Taliban to its pledge of safe passage for those who want to leave.

The number of UK nationals still there was in the “low hundreds”, he said.

He added that over 5,000 UK nationals were among more than 17,000 people evacuated by the UK from Afghanistan.

Mr Raab also defended his handling of the crisis, insisting that “no department has performed better than the Foreign Office and anyone trying to suggest otherwise” either lacked “credibility” or had been “peripheral” to events – and “should be focused on the job at hand”.

Opposition parties called for his resignation this month after it emerged he had been unavailable to make a phone call about evacuating interpreters who had helped UK forces while he was on holiday in Crete.

Mr Raab subsequently admitted that “with hindsight” he would not have gone away, but dismissed the idea that he was “lounging on the beach” as “nonsense”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had full confidence in his foreign secretary.

Mr Raab told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday that the next “challenge” was to face Afghanistan’s “new reality… and come up with a plan that reflects it”.

He said the UK needed to get “wider buy in” from China, Russia and countries in Central Asia to exercise the “maximum moderating influence” on the Taliban and safeguard gains made over two decades, such as better access to education and lower maternal mortality rates.

Mr Raab said that the UK would “reserve the right” to take part in future air strikes in the country on the grounds of “lawful self-defence”, especially when dealing with “terrorist groups”.