'Workaholic' Dominic Raab unfairly being made scapegoat for Afghanistan evacuation crisis, suggests David Davis

Dominic Raab is unfairly being made into a “scapegoat” for the Government’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis and evacuations of translators who helped UK forces, Yorkshire MP and former Cabinet minister David Davis has suggested.
Foreign Secratary Dominic Raab (centre) arrives at the Foreign Office in Westminster, London, as he faces mounting pressure to resign after it emerged a phone call requested by his officials to help interpreters flee Afghanistan was not made. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA WireForeign Secratary Dominic Raab (centre) arrives at the Foreign Office in Westminster, London, as he faces mounting pressure to resign after it emerged a phone call requested by his officials to help interpreters flee Afghanistan was not made. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Foreign Secratary Dominic Raab (centre) arrives at the Foreign Office in Westminster, London, as he faces mounting pressure to resign after it emerged a phone call requested by his officials to help interpreters flee Afghanistan was not made. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

The Foreign Secretary has come under increasing pressure to resign after it was revealed he was on the Greek island of Crete as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Mr Raab said today that the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in Afghanistan prevented a call being made to Afghan ministers about evacuating interpreters and others who had supported British troops.

Mr Raab said ministers have been “working tirelessly” over the last week to evacuate British nationals and Afghans, with the priority being keeping Kabul airport open.

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It came after it was reported that Foreign Office officials advised the Cabinet minister on August 13 to call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar – two days before the Taliban marched on Kabul – to arrange help for those who supported British troops. But Mr Raab delegated this to junior minister Lord Goldsmith, and it later emerged the call had never been made.

Yorkshire MP David Davis has defended Mr Raab's actions over the Afghanistan crisis. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA WireYorkshire MP David Davis has defended Mr Raab's actions over the Afghanistan crisis. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Yorkshire MP David Davis has defended Mr Raab's actions over the Afghanistan crisis. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

In a statement on Friday, Mr Raab said the planned call had been "quickly overtaken by events".

"The call was delegated to a minister of state because I was prioritising security and capacity at the airport on the direct advice of the director and the director-general overseeing the crisis response. In any event, the Afghan foreign minister agreed to take the call, but was unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation.”

He went on: “The Government’s approach to prioritise security at the airport was the right one. As a result, 204 UK nationals and their families, Afghan staff and other countries citizens were evacuated on the morning of Monday 16 August.

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“Since then, 1,635 have been evacuated. I pay tribute to the excellent team we have in place, and we continue to prioritise what is required to evacuate people to the UK safely.”

Haltemprice and Howden MP David Davis said it was “nonsense” to suggest that Mr Raab should consider his position.

He said that while there had clearly been failings in the handling of the crisis by the Government, they could not be directed at any one person and that having worked with Mr Raab he was a “workaholic” who would often pull 60-hour weeks.

Mr Davis told the PA news agency: “Last Friday, nobody in the House of Commons, or anywhere in Fleet Street or anywhere, or indeed, in the organisation of the Taliban knew that they would have, by Sunday, taken Kabul. Nobody.

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“The Americans were saying it could happen in 30 days, our own intelligence said similar. So the idea that somebody should rush back from a holiday – frankly, a workaholic minister, which is what he is – is sort of daft, really, it’s worse than 20:20 hindsight.

“The Government’s not had a good week, let’s be clear about this, in terms of the handling of this crisis, and it looks like somebody is trying to scapegoat one member of Government.”

But Lisa Nandy, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, said Mr Raab’s explantion of events “simply doesn’t add up”.

“It should have been an absolute priority to speak to the Afghan government and set out the immediate actions necessary to ensure the safe evacuation of Britons and Afghans,” she said.

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“Who knows how many more people might have been saved in the hours leading up to the fall of Kabul if the Foreign Secretary had made the call he was advised to. To suggest it was too late to stop the capital falling to the Taliban is not a defence, but a shameful admission of his own failure to act sooner.

"The Foreign Secretary’s statement fails to refute a single fact that has been reported - it serves only to confirm his decision to abdicate responsibility and grossly neglect his duties.”

It comes as Boris Johnson called the latest in a series of COBR meeting on Friday afternoon over the crisis.

The Times reported that Sir Philip Barton, Matthew Rycroft and David Williams, the respective permanent secretaries of the Foreign Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence, were on holiday amid the evacuations from Afghanistan.

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It is understood the senior officials continued to work on Afghanistan while on leave, with the Whitehall departments running systems where there is another minister or an acting permanent secretary to cover periods of leave.

While Mr Davis has defended Mr Raab, other Conservatives have taken a different view.

One senior Tory MP reportedly told the Guardian Mr Raab’s position was untenable and that “not coming home was his biggest mistake”.

Another Tory figure said the handling had been chaotic, but that the focus now needed to be on evacuating people from Afghanistan, with questions to be asked later.

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Security minister James Heappey said the Taliban was being “officious rather than malicious” in stopping people reaching Kabul airport for evacuation flights.

A total of 963 people have been evacuated from Kabul on the RAF “air bridge” in the last 24 hours, according to the minister.

The former soldier, who fought in Afghanistan, added that he is kept “awake at night” by the knowledge the UK will not be able to get “absolutely everybody out”.

Mr Heappey said it is unclear how long the UK evacuation plan will last as it is dependent on the “dynamic” circumstances.

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He said he understands that the Taliban is not turning people away from Kabul airport, noting: “Where they have done, I’ve heard it’s more that they are being officious rather than malicious.”

Ex-Nato chief questions 'dereliction of duty'

Dominic Raab’s statement does not sort out questions over his actions over the last few days and it would be a “dereliction of duty” not to have picked up the phone over the last week, the former secretary general of Nato and Labour peer Lord George Robertson has said.

Lord Robertson told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “Tony Blinken, the American secretary of state, spoke to the foreign minister of Afghanistan. And, frankly, foreign ministers only talk to foreign ministers, they don’t talk to junior ministers. So, he should have been talking to the foreign minister of Afghanistan much earlier than last Friday anyway, common sense would have suggested that the foreign secretary should have been trying to sort out the exit of our vulnerable people before that.

“Quite frankly, we need to have serious politicians at this time for a serious crisis that is ongoing. And if the Transport Secretary comes on the air and says people should not be having holidays abroad, and the Foreign Secretary of all people goes abroad, and doesn’t lift the phone as city after city was falling last week, then that’s a dereliction of duty of major consequence.”

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