Yorkshire MP who supported Afghanistan invasion 20 years ago defends the decision

Labour’s Hillary Benn spoke out in support of military action in the Middle Eastern nation in 2001 after the then Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that British troops would be deployed to drive out the Taliban and al Qaeda, in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

But the insurgents defeated the security forces in a matter of weeks and took back control of the country, after US-led forces withdrew.

Mr Benn, who was a Parliamentary under secretary at the Department for International Development during the initial invasion, described the fall of Afghanistan as “truly awful”, but added: “I don’t think it’s correct to lay all this at the door of the original invasion”.

The MP for Leeds Central said: “ At that time, the Taliban were largely in control of the country. They had given shelter to Al Qaida, which plotted the horrific attack on the twin towers from Afghanistan, and they were responsible for gross human rights abuses.

“Girls were denied an education, women could not work, theft was punished by amputation and there was the death penalty for homosexuality and adultery. There was also no democracy.

“Since then, a fragile democracy has emerged and whatever its many failings, it was better than Taliban rule. Millions of refugees who fled the country when the Taliban were last in control returned.

“Women got the vote, they made up a quarter of the Afghan Parliament and they could work. There are now many more children in school and access to basic medical care has improved considerably.

“The allied forces also spent a lot of money and gave a lot of support and equipment to the Afghan military and police in order to enable them to defend the country themselves.

“Unfortunately, these efforts failed. The truth is that the capacity and strength of the Afghan armed forces was consistently over-estimated, and the unpopular government and corruption also played a part.”

Mr Benn said he “fears for the future of the country and for the democratic gains that have been made” but “NATO troops could not have remained forever”.

He added: “I don’t think it was a sensible step for President Biden to announce such a precipitate withdrawal of US forces.

“Only last month, he said that he did not think that the Taliban would overrun the country. The events of the past week have shown just how mistaken that assessment was.

“Having said that, once the US decided to pull out there was no realistic prospect of other allied forces remaining given the heavy dependence of everyone on the Americans.”

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has admitted the UK Government did not see the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan coming, adding it will have to engage with them in the future in order to hold them to account for their actions.

He said several nations were “caught off-guard” by the quick and hostile nature of the militant group’s takeover, which has prompted thousands of Afghans to flee the country as they fear persecution and violence.

Around 900 armed forces are in Afghanistan helping to bring UK nationals home and secure the safety of selected Afghans.

Mr Raab said 150 British nationals were flown out on Sunday while 289 Afghan nationals were taken out last week.

A further 350 British and Afghans will be taken out of the country in the next 24 hours.