Boris Johnson has pledged to “shift heaven and earth” to get more people out of Afghanistan after the 31 August deadline.
Speaking to reporters, the prime minister shared his “great sense of regret” that more individuals could not be airlifted out of Kabul during what he described as “the first phase” of the evacuation process.
The PM also confirmed the death of two British nationals and a child of another UK national as he condemned the “contemptible” attack at Kabul airport on Thursday.
“Of course, as we come down to the final hours of the operation there will sadly be people who haven’t got through, people who might qualify,” he said.
“What I would say to them is that we will shift heaven and earth to help them get out, we will do whatever we can in the second phase.”
When asked whether the scenes in Afghanistan in the last few days amounted to a national humiliation, the PM told reporters the circumstances were “extremely difficult and extremely horrible”.
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“It’s certainly not something that… the timing of this is certainly not the one that this country would have chosen, and I think that everybody understands that,” the PM said.
He also repeated his warning to the Taliban that if they want engagement with the west, they must allow people to leave Afghanistan.
“But the crucial thing is that the Taliban authorities, the new government – however it is composed – have got to understand that if they want to have engagement with the west, if they want to have a relationship with us, then safe passage for those is absolutely paramount,” the PM said.
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On Friday, Ben Wallace announced that the UK’s processing centre for evacuees has now closed
“There will be people who are eligible, whether they’re UK nationals who have chosen not to come forward yet, or people who were interpreters and others who haven’t been able to get to come forward to Hamid Karzai International Airport so far.
“And what I say to them, is that we will shift heaven and earth to get you out, and we will use all the leverage that we have with the Taliban to make sure that they understand it.”
The PM added that the UK government will “continue to talk to the Taliban” and that the group are “certainly no friends of Daesh, the Islamic State Khorasan Province” who claim responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
RAF personnel have now lifted 13,000 people from the airport in Kabul to the UK, the prime minister said, adding: “We have never seen anything like it in our lifetimes.”
Earlier on Friday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed the UK’s evacuation mission at Kabul’s airport has “a matter of hours” left and no more people will be called forward.
Mr Wallace told Kay Burley on Sky News the effort was into its “final hours” after the closure of the main processing centre in Kabul at the Baron Hotel near the airport.
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An attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday killed more than 100 people
He said: “We, at 4.30 this morning, UK-time, closed the Baron Hotel, shut the processing centre and the gates were closed at Abbey Gate.
“We will process the people that we’ve brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now and we will seek a way to continue to find a few people in the crowds where we can, but overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.
“The sad fact is not every single one will get out.”
The Baron Hotel was closed just hours after two attacks, claimed by terror group ISIS-K, outside the airport killed 13 US troops and 95 Afghans.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “dark day” for Afghanistan and called for an “urgent plan” for those eligible Afghans who were left behind.
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a ‘dark day’ for Afghanistan
Defence sources have told Sky News British troops have also started to leave Afghanistan, with about 100 out of the 1,000 there having already left.
The Ministry of Defence said 13,708 people have so far been evacuated since 13 August, including 7,975 under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for Afghans currently and formerly employed by the UK, and their families.
Mr Wallace also said he had authorised the loosening of regulations on numbers “to pack people in” on the final flights out. It is expected about 600 people will now be able to board military transporters.
He would not confirm whether some British troops would remain in Kabul until the 31 August deadline the US has set.
After the US warned of an imminent terror attack on Wednesday, most countries ended their evacuation efforts on Thursday ahead of the bombing.
The defence secretary has said he is “angry inside” over the infected blood scandal ahead of a long-waited report into the decades-long injustice.
Grant Shapps told Sky News he agreed it had been one of the most “shameful failures” of government and said he was dismayed by the “lack of anybody taking responsibility”.
The findings of a public inquiry into the scandal, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, are due to be published on Monday.
From 1970 to the 1990s, tens of thousands of people were infected with contaminated blood through blood products or blood transfusions given via the NHS. People were infected with hepatitis or HIV – in some cases with both.
Mr Shapps told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that the scandal was a “massive injustice which needs to be put right” and said the government would act on the report.
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13:43
Thousands of people died after being given infected blood
He said that while he was yet to see the report, he hoped it would finally allow families’ pain and loss to be acknowledged and for the government to properly respond.
Mr Shapps said he had spoken to relatives of several victims, including a couple who had lost their son, and said their stories made feel him “angry inside”.
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He added: “It just made me angry to know they had lost their son without anyone ever taking responsibility, so I think this is why this report tomorrow is very important.”
Successive governments have been blamed for failing to take responsibility and the current government has been accused of trying to delay compensation to victims after an inquiry was first set up by Theresa May in 2017.
It is estimated that the compensation bill could now exceed £10m.
The defence secretary admitted the process of delivering payouts to victims had gone on for “so long”.
He added: “This is a massive injustice which needs to be put right.
“And I know the government said we will. The report tomorrow, I think, will be the day for that family and others and I know the government will want to respond quickly.”
Asked whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would apologise to the victims, Mr Shapps said: “I don’t want to mislead because I don’t have special insight into that.”
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Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
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“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
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“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”