MPs return early to ask ‘what now’ for Afghanistan?

By Fraser Raleigh

MPs return to Westminster tomorrow to consider the physical and diplomatic wreckage of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban over the weekend.

Following the recall of Parliament, MPs will have five hours to try to make sense of the immediate questions over humanitarian assistance and the UK’s asylum policy towards those seeking to flee, as well as the deep geopolitical questions raised by President Biden’s uncompromising and unapologetic ‘America First’ defence of his withdrawal of US troops last night.

The Government will be expected to set out details of its approach to accepting asylum seekers, with the desperate scenes from Kabul airport sparking calls for the UK to make a bold and generous offer. The Government will also come under significant pressure over the way it has handled applications from Afghan interpreters who supported the UK during its two-decade long presence in the country, with long-standing criticism of the Home Office likely to ramp up even further, given the dangers now facing these interpreters from the Taliban.

MPs will also pose hard questions about the UK’s operational handling of the past few days, but will certainly single out the UK Ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow for especially high praise, after he insisted on staying put in Kabul to personally process visa applications for the UK’s Afghan staff.

One person not attracting praise in Westminster is President Biden, following his hard-nosed speech that framed the conflict purely through the lens of US homeland security, and his harsh criticism of the Afghan forces as “not willing to fight for themselves”.

Biden’s remarks are likely to set the tone for a tense debate for the Government, with senior Conservative backbenchers having expressed real anger at ministers’ role during the fall of Kabul, which Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair, Tom Tugendhat MP, yesterday said was the “biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez”.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been the focus of backbench criticism, including from Tugendhat. Former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer who, like Tugendhat, served in Afghanistan, tweeted: “British Minsters blaming the Americans deserve no sympathy at all. They have been completely absent, and spouted meaningless platitudes throughout.”

Difficult and far broader questions also surround what the UK sees as its role on the international stage. For decades, the UK has positioned itself as a bridge between Europe and America, but problems now loom large on either side of that bridge, with the US administration appearing to MPs to be determined to focus more on itself and its strategic competitors than its allies, and the trust between the EU and UK still fragile following Brexit and the unfinished business of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Parliamentary recalls themselves often set up high political drama and tomorrow’s debate will likely be no different, particularly as it will be the first time MPs have returned to the chamber without the hybrid procedure, allowing them to meet in larger numbers in person and without social distancing.

The debate has attracted criticism, however, including from Defence Select Committee Chair Tobias Ellwood, for being a general debate without a vote. Ellwood tweeted over the weekend that: “Without a vote we will simply confirm that UK foreign policy is missing in action.”

But while MPs returning from summer recess for one day only may find they have nothing to vote on, there will be no shortage of serious questions for them to ask themselves about what comes next for Afghanistan, and for the UK’s own place in the world.