Nandy: Raab has “serious questions to answer” over compromised staff details

Labour’s Lisa Nandy has warned that Dominic Raab has “serious questions to answer” following reports that documents of Afghan staff working in the British embassy in Kabul have been left for the Taliban to find.

The embassy was evacuated on August 15th, but papers identifying seven Afghan workers were found by The Times earlier this week. Phone calls revealed that some employees and their families remained stranded outside the airport.

Reacting to the news this morning, Nandy said: “The Foreign Secretary has claimed he was too busy overseeing operational decisions to call the Afghan foreign minister. This incident raises questions about what precisely he was doing in the hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban.”

Raab has faced repeated calls to resign for his decision to stay on a family holiday while the government in Afghanistan collapsed and for delegating tasks to junior ministers. According to The Times, Raab was advised to return to the UK on Friday but persuaded Boris Johnson that he could stay for two more days.

He was accused last week of failing to make an important call to his Afghan counterpart to ask for assistance to evacuate interpreters who worked for UK military personnel during the 20-year conflict as the Taliban advanced on the capital.

“The destruction of sensitive materials and the safe evacuation of the embassy should have been a top priority,” Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary said today.

“The government must urgently assess the individuals who have been exposed by this breach, whether ongoing British operations have been compromised and what other sensitive materials may have fallen into the hands of those who wish to do us harm.

“Ministers have had 18 months to prepare for this moment. When the Foreign Secretary sits down in front of the foreign affairs select committee next week, he has serious questions to answer.”

Afghan citizens working alongside UK military personnel and diplomats over the last two decades and who have not been able to escape the country are at risk of severe reprisals from the Taliban, who returned to power last week.

Ministers admitted today that it is “clearly not good enough” that documents identifying Afghan workers were found on the ground at the British embassy. The foreign affairs select committee has announced an inquiry into the incident.

The success of the Taliban followed the planned withdrawal of troops by the US, agreed by the then President Donald Trump. Evacuation flights are still departing from the capital as the US and other countries fly out nationals.

Labour has several times highlighted that there were 18 months between the agreement to withdraw and the subsequent implementation, and that Joe Biden had been clear in his intention to respect the agreement made by his predecessor.

Kabul airport is currently being defended and run by the US army, which has 5,800 troops on the ground, with the help of around 1,000 UK troops. Ministers have said UK personnel will leave before the US withdraws.

US troops controlling Kabul airport, the only functioning airport in the country, are scheduled to leave by August 31st. Johnson and other leaders failed to agree with Joe Biden an extension to the deadline at a G7 meeting this week.

The Taliban have pledged not to attack foreign forces during the evacuation, but have insisted that all troops must be out by the deadline on Tuesday.

Johnson claimed on Thursday that the “overwhelming majority” of those eligible had been evacuated, saying that around 15,000 people had been flown out of the capital. Labour MPs have challenged the figure put forward by the Prime Minister.

Labour MP for Hammersmith Andy Slaughter tweeted: “From our caseload of over 100 families, I can say that the vast majority of eligible Afghans have not been evacuated. So this is just a bare-faced and sickeningly cynical lie.”

US-led evacuations have continued today following two bomb attacks on Thursday afternoon, which killed at least 95 people. Government ministers have said the UK is in the final stages of its evacuation and is expected to end in a few hours.