Tory MP and ex-soldier gets round of applause for emotional Afghanistan Commons speech
A Conservative MP who served in Afghanistan received a round of applause after delivering an emotional speech in an emergency Commons debate on the crisis there.
Tom Tugendhat told MPs the past week has seen him, like many veterans, “struggle through anger, grief and rage” as events in Afghanistan unfolded.
Live updates as MPs debate Afghanistan crisis
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We will judge Taliban by its actions, not words’
“The feeling of abandonment, of not just a country but the sacrifice that my friends made,” the MP for Tonbridge and Malling in Kent said.
Mr Tugendhat said he had seen “good men go into the earth, taking with a part of me and a part of all of us”.
The Taliban takeover, he added, has “torn open” old wounds and “left them raw”.
Parliament has been recalled to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country at the weekend.
Mr Tugendhat reserved particular criticism for Joe Biden, saying it was “shameful” for the US president to “call into question the courage of the men I fought with”.
“Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Biden blames Afghan army’s unwillingness to fight
In an address to the nation on Monday, Mr Biden said the Afghan military had “collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight”.
“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” the president added.
Mr Tugendhat said the UK could work with other countries, independent of the US, adding: “We can set out a vision, clearly articulate it, for reinvigorating our European NATO partners, to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, that that we can work together with Japan and Australia, France and Germany, with partners large and small and make sure we hold the line together.”
The MP recalled his time as an advisor to the governor of Helmand province, remembering the “joy” the opening of schools for girls brought to families.
“I didn’t understand it until I took my own daughter to school about a year ago,” he said.
“There was a lot of crying when she first went in, but I got over it and it went OK. I’d love to see that continue.”
Follow the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
He said he wanted to leave MPs with a second, “harder” image, continuing: “It’s one that the forever war that has just reignited could lead to.
“It is the image of a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier – carrying this child into our fire base and begging for help.
“There was nothing we could do. It was over. This is what defeat looks like when you no longer have the choice of how to help.
“This doesn’t need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it.”
Politics
Boris Johnson puts up united front with Rishi Sunak to warn against ‘disaster’ of Labour government
Boris Johnson has made his first public appearance in the Conservative election campaign to warn voters against electing a Labour government on 4 July.
The former prime minister told an audience in central London that a potential Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer would “destroy so much of what we have achieved”.
Mr Johnson, who was rumoured to make an appearance at some point in the campaign, spoke before Rishi Sunak at an event designed to rally supporters in the final hours before polling day.
Alluding to their past disagreements as prime minister and chancellor, Mr Johnson said: “Whatever our differences they are trivial to the disaster we may face.”
He said Westminster was about to go “diametrically in the opposite direction” to the progress the country had achieved over COVID and economic growth.
“None of us can sit back as a Labour government prepares to use a sledgehammer majority to destroy so much of what we have achieved, what you have achieved,” he said.
Election latest: ‘I just want to lose,’ says Tory minister
Mr Johnson, who won the largest Conservative majority in 2019 since the years of Margaret Thatcher, repeated the warnings that have been made by the Tories continuously throughout the campaign that Sir Keir was on course for a “supermajority” that could hamper democratic accountability.
“Is it not therefore the height of insanity, if these polls are right, that we are about to give Labour a supermajority which they will use to make us nothing but the punk of Brussels, taking EU law by dictation with no say on how that law is made?” he asked.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He accused Labour of “barely” being able to conceal their agenda of tax rises and of being “so complacent”.
“Poor old Starmer is so terrified of disobeying left wing dogma that he’s reluctant to explain the difference between a man and a woman, and he just he just sits there with his mouth opening and shutting like a stunned mullet,” he went on.
“Do we want this kind of madness? Do we want ever higher taxes? Do we want more wokery imposed on our schools? And yet this is coming now.”
👉 Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈
Mr Johnson’s surprise appearance came after a poll by Survation predicted Labour would win a majority of 318 seats, surpassing the 179 achieved by Sir Tony Blair in 1997.
The pollster said Sir Keir would win 484 seats out of the total of 650, while the Tories would crash to 64 seats – just three more than the Liberal Democrats.
Read more:
Badenoch and Braverman deny association with Tory leadership campaign websites
Is it possible to ‘ringfence’ family time when you’re prime minister?
Mr Sunak thanked his predecessor for his support, adding: “Boris was right to say now is the time for all Conservatives to come together to deny Labour that super majority that Keir Starmer craves.
“We have 48 hours to save Britain from the danger of a Labour government.”
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said Mr Johnson’s appearance was an “insult to everyone who made heartbreaking sacrifices during the pandemic”.
“Rishi Sunak has reached a desperate new low, turning to a man who discredited the office of prime minister and lied to the country time after time.
“It is time to boot out this tired and sleaze-ridden Conservative party, and elect Liberal Democrat MPs who will stand up for their communities.”
While Judge Reed O’Connor granted the SEC an extension to respond to Consensys’ lawsuit, he also approved a timeline for considering the case’s merits proposed by the firm.
The brokerage platform took advantage of Hawaii’s recent change to money transmitter licensing to expand to the non-contiguous United States.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports3 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports8 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company