A leaked Foreign Office report warned government ministers on 22 July that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would lead to ‘rapid Taliban advances’, a senior Conservative MP has claimed.
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, told Sky News that the department’s own principle risk report on Afghanistan suggested the country’s cities were in danger of being taken over more than three weeks before the UK government launched Operation Pitting in the middle of August.
Reading the alleged document to MPs during an almost two-hour questioning on the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Mr Tugendhat said the report stressed the move could lead to “the fall of cities”, the “collapse of security forces” and that the embassy may need to close.
Image: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says intelligence suggested Kabul was ‘unlikely’ to fall this year
It came as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told MPs that the “central assessment” of ministers had been that Kabul was “unlikely” to fall this year.
Mr Raab said: “The central assessment that we were operating to – and it was certainly backed up by the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) and the military – is that the most likely, the central proposition, was that given the troop withdrawal by the end of August, you’d see a steady deterioration from that point, and it was unlikely Kabul would fall this year.”
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He noted that this line of thinking remained “until late”, but stressed that work to develop an evacuation plan was ongoing from June.
But Mr Tugendhat, who chaired the gruelling interrogation of Mr Raab over the situation in Afghanistan and served in the region himself, claimed the leaked document stressed the volatile nature of the country much sooner and said there is “an issue with intelligence”.
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“The Foreign Office’s own principle risk report highlighted in July, on 22 July, the risk of complete failure in Afghanistan – and now we are seeing, even now, people who didn’t make it out in time,” Mr Tugendhat told Sky News.
“So there is a lesson to be learned there.”
He added: “I’ve spoken to a lot of people in the last few weeks who are very keen that I should understand exactly what has been going on inside the Foreign Office, inside other elements of government.
Image: Tom Tugendhat said the document had been given to him by ‘somebody who was in a position to know’
“And I have been extremely careful in which bits of information I use and which bits I don’t in order to protect absolutely the security of our nation and those areas where we do need to be cautious.
“But I think in a warning like this, which clearly has now been well-overtaken by events, revealing that it was made on 22 July is a matter of public interest.”
Asked if the leaked report was provided by a whistleblower, Mr Tugendhat continued: “It is a report given to me by somebody who was in a position to know.
“Well it is quite clear that there are two kinds of intelligence failures: there are those failures where the intelligence agency failed to provide the intelligence – and that is the traditional meaning of the word.
“And there is a second kind of intelligence failure where whoever is the principle didn’t read it.
“I am afraid you can’t blame the spies if the officers don’t read the report.”
Mr Tugendhat referenced the report, which is not publicly available, during Mr Raab’s committee hearing questioning highlighting that there was a risk Afghanistan could collapse.
Image: Taliban fighters pictured at the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Pic :AP
The committee chairman read out an extract of the document which stated clearly that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan would result in rapid Taliban advances which could lead to the fall of cities and the collapse of security forces.
Mr Raab asked for the source of the information before flicking through his folder and responding with details about the central assessment – the intelligence picture the Foreign Office was working from when it made decisions about Afghanistan.
This, he said, stated that it was unlikely Kabul would fall before the end of the year.
This assessment, which was backed by the independent Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and military chiefs, remained the driving force behind government policy until “late”, despite other sources which stated more action might need to be taken.
But Mr Tugendhat suggested the JIC assessment appears to be at odds with the department’s own risk report.
Image: The foreign secretary has faced criticism after it emerged he was on holiday in Crete while the Taliban was advancing on Kabul
The leaked document suggests Mr Raab travelled abroad on holiday after his own department advised Kabul was at imminent risk of falling.
It also poses more questions as to why more was not done sooner to extract British nationals from Afghanistan.
During the committee hearing, Labour MP Chris Bryant asked Mr Raab if he was already on holiday on 11 August – when the US assessed the Taliban were likely to capture the whole of Afghanistan.
He also noted that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Raab and the top civil servant at the Foreign Office were all on holiday at the same time.
The foreign secretary repeatedly refused to answer questions about his trip and said he would not participate in a “fishing exercise”.
Meanwhile, Conservative Bob Seely pressed Mr Raab on why the UK’s intelligence was “clearly wrong” about how quickly the Taliban would take over Afghanistan.
The foreign secretary replied that there was some “optimism” from the US but admits that “clearly” the assessment they could not advance at the speed they did was “not correct”.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem
Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Image: Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
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