Boris Johnson has faced anger from MPs about the UK’s failure to prepare for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, as he made the case that Britain could not have stayed in the country “without American might”.
The prime minister said a military defence of Afghanistan by the west was not possible in the absence of Washington’s support.
“I do not believe deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that would commend itself to the British people or this house,” he said, opening a debate in the House of Commons.
However, his position was quickly challenged by a number of high-profile Conservatives, including the former prime minister Theresa May, former defence minister Tobias Ellwood and former chief whip Mark Harper.
May pressed Johnson on whether he had spoken to the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, about the “possibility of alliance of other forces” in order to replace American troops. The prime minister only replied that he had spoken to Stoltenberg in the last few days.
She later delivered a scathing attack on the foreign policy and intelligence failures of Johnson and the US president, Joe Biden. » | Rowena Mason and Jessica Murray | Wednesday, August 18, 2021
This Conservative government is not fit for purpose. Boris Johnson is the worst Conservative prime minister we've had in my lifetime. The man is a Trump clone – in other words, a clown! He is ill-suited to the job of prime minister, despite his so-called first-class edducation. The problem lies in the man, not in his education. The Conservative Party has had a long and proud tradition of providing this nation with prime ministers of a very high calbre. It grieves me to have to say this, but Boris Johnson doesn't fit that mould. He is unserious, self-serving and given to buffoonery. For God's sake, let's elect a decent prime minister to lead this country. This country needs to return to the European Union. Our destiny lies in Europe and with our European brethren, not somewhere out in the Atlantic, on a dinghy, on the high seas, trying to make Britain 'global', whatever the clown means by that? Whenever was Britain not global anyway? Britain's proud and long history is nothing if not global. And wasn't Britain global enough for the tw*t (fill in the vowel of your choice!) while we were members of the European Union? Enough of this clowning around! Let us get back to some serious politics. Let us re-locate our true place in the world: in Europe. – © Mark
‘This is a shame on all of us’: British MPs debate the fall of Kabul: Debate in Commons hears from former and current party leaders, and MPs who served in Afghanistan »
