Dominic Raab is to hold a series of diplomatic meetings this week focusing on future engagement with the Taliban after the final UK troops pulled out of Afghanistan on Saturday.
The foreign secretary will host talks with other officials in a bid to find an international consensus on how to deal with Afghanistan’s new regime and to ensure the Taliban stands by its commitment to allow safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans authorised to enter third countries, diplomatic sources said.
It came as Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Sky News it is “impossible” to say how many people are left in Afghanistan who are eligible to come to the UK.
Image: Dominic Raab will hold diplomatic talks on the situation in Afghanistan this week
Mr Raab will take part in a meeting on Monday with G7 members, Nato, Qatar and Turkey, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.
Ensuring safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans authorised to enter third countries is likely to be the main focus following a statement from the UK and more than 90 other countries and organisations which said these assurances had been received from the Taliban.
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It comes amid fears that the number of Afghans left behind who may have been eligible for resettling is higher than originally thought.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, Mr Cleverly said the “vast, vast bulk” of British nationals had left the country, but there are also people eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) – which is for people who helped the UK’s forces – and others still there who could be under threat.
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“We are going to continue working to get people out who fall into those groups – predominantly now, of course, it will be in that third group – people at risk of reprisals, whether they be high-profile individuals, of religious minorities or others who may be under severe risk of reprisals from the Taliban,” the foreign office minister said.
Image: Labour say the government’s figures for those left in Afghanistan who are eligible to be assisted are ‘seriously underestimated’
Writing to Mr Raab on Sunday, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said Labour MPs had 5,000 potential refugee cases in their inboxes and said the government’s figures for those eligible are a “serious underestimate”.
Mr Cleverly told Sky News the UK government hopes to work with the Taliban to ensure the safe passage of Afghans out of the country.
“We will judge the Taliban by their actions. They have made certain commitments about not taking out reprisals on individuals, about facilitating exit,” he said.
“Obviously we are sceptical about those commitments but we will continue working with them to an extent, based on their conduct, to try to facilitate that further evacuation and repatriation effort.
“What we are not going to do is just assume good faith in every respect – we are going to judge them on their actions, we are going to hold them to account if they fall short of their promises and commitments – but we are going to keep working to get people out of Afghanistan that need to leave Afghanistan.”
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How do we get those left behind out?
Other topics for the diplomatic discussions are set to include ensuring Afghanistan does not become a terrorist hot-spot and the need to prioritise stability in the region.
The foreign secretary will also emphasise the importance of holding the Taliban to account over human rights promises, diplomatic sources said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special representative for Afghan transition, Sir Simon Gass, will hold similar talks in Doha while the UK’s UN ambassador will discuss the situation with her counterparts from the four other permanent member countries of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, and the United States.
Speaking on Sunday, the PMsaid the UK will “engage with the Taliban not on the basis of what they say, but what they do”.
“Though we now leave with the United States, we will remain represented in the region,” Mr Johnson said.
“Together with our allies in America and Europe and around the world, we will engage with the Taliban not on the basis of what they say but what they do.
“If the new regime in Kabul wants diplomatic recognition, or to unlock the billions that are currently frozen, they will have to ensure safe passage for those who wish to leave the country, to respect the rights of women and girls, to prevent Afghanistan from, again, becoming an incubator for global terror, because that would be disastrous for Afghanistan.”
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British troops leave Afghanistan.
The UK government has faced criticism for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
Speaking at the weekend, Conservative chairman of the foreign affairs select committee Tom Tugendhat described the situation as a “sprint finish after a not exactly sprint start”.
Meanwhile, Labour have accused ministers of being “missing in action”.
On Sunday, the last remaining UK troops began to touch down in the UK after leaving Kabul for the last time, ending Britain’s 20-year campaign in Afghanistan.
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Afghan refugees: Taliban ‘would have killed us’
Under Operation Pitting, the UK evacuated 15,000 people from Kabul in a fortnight – including 5,000 British nationals and more than 8,000 Afghans who worked for the UK and their families, as well as many highly vulnerable people.
Among those fleeing were approximately 2,200 children who have now been lifted to safety – the youngest of whom was just one day old.
It has been the UK’s largest military evacuation since the Second World War.
About 10,000 people have been brought to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which is double the number anticipated this year.
The Protect Progress PAC spent more than $1 million to support James Walkinshaw in a primary for the congressional seat, in a race that could narrow Republicans’ House majority.
Kemi Badenoch has offered to help the government pass legislation to slash the welfare bill – but with conditions attached.
In a speech on Tuesday morning, the Conservative Party leader accused the government of having “totally lost control of spending” and “leading Britain into a deeper and deeper crisis”.
She argued that the only way to fix the issue was to dramatically reduce the welfare budget – and set out to Sky News political correspondent Tamara Cohen her conditions for supporting the government.
Speaking at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ms Badenoch said: “We are the only party arguing that government has to live within its means.
“Every single other political party in parliament today, every single other one, wants to increase welfare spending and they voted to do so.
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“They wanted to lift the so-called two child benefit cap. They don’t mind that our sickness benefits bill alone is on course to reach £100bn by 2030.”
The Tory leader said the chancellor will have no option but to raise taxes at the budget in the autumn to fund Labour’s spending plans, and also pay the interest on the vast government debt.
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3:34
Is Badenoch right to say UK might need a bailout?
But she claimed that “some in government must know that things need to change”, saying: “You can picture their grim faces, looking at the latest OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility forecast] figures.
“But the truth is they came into government with no real plans for how to save money – only how to spend it. That’s why they are in trouble.”
To that end, she said she is “making the prime minister a serious offer” because “the Conservative Party will always act in the national interest”.
She noted that Sir Keir Starmer had tried to cut welfare spending by targeting benefits paid to disabled people, but had to “gut” the legislation just before the vote and was “humiliated by his own backbenches”.
But she continued: “If he is serious about cutting spending, and really bringing down the welfare bill, we will help him.”
And pointing to Angela Rayner’s resignation, and the ensuing contest for a new deputy Labour leader, Ms Badneoch said: “Whether he wants to admit it or not, Keir Starmer needs our help.”
‘We need to find common ground’
Speaking to Sky News after her speech, the Tory leader said she will only support new government legislation on welfare as long as it brings the total spending down.
“Right now, what I’m offering is for us to sit down together and find common ground,” she told Cohen. “We know that this is difficult, but Conservatives have done this before. We had to find welfare savings and reform welfare in the coalition, [majority] government and after, and we can do it again.”
Image: Labour called the Tory leader ‘delusional’. Pic: PA/House of Commons
She insisted the Tories reduced the welfare bill before the pandemic, when it started going up again.
She said: “We fixed the previous problem. There is now a new problem and what we’re saying is let’s work together to fix it.”
“If we don’t live within our means, we will go bankrupt and our children will have to pay off the debt,” she added.
‘Stop all these distractions’
Ms Badenoch was also challenged on her claim that she was offered a scholarship place at the Stanford Medical School in California, which The Guardian reports has been denied by the admissions staff who were there at the time.
She told Cohen: “They’ve been told something that I didn’t say. I didn’t say I was offered a place – I said I was offered a scholarship, a part scholarship. I hadn’t applied for it.
“But I stand by every single thing that I said. It’s something American universities do. They send out speculative offers.”
Image: Kemi Badenoch was asked about scholarship offer claims. Pic: PA
She called on people to “stop all these distractions about who said what, and who’s up and who is down”, and focus on Angela Rayner’s property taxes, and the economy.
“I tell the truth. I stand by what I said. But right now, the truth is our economy is going in the wrong direction – it’s in free fall, and we have got to fix this.”
A Labour Party spokesperson rejected Ms Badenoch’s offer of help.
“It’s delusional of Kemi Badenoch to think anyone would want to take economic advice from her Conservative Party,” they said. “Their economy-crashing, growth-killing, irresponsible approach to governing left mortgages spiralling and working people worse off.
“The only thing in Britain that needs a bailout is the Conservative Party from its leadership. The Tories haven’t listened, they haven’t learned, and they can’t be trusted.
“Labour is clear that people who can work should work. This Labour government is getting people back into the workplace and out of the doom loop of joblessness that spiralled out of control under the Conservatives.”
The group of 12 senators stressed the need for a bipartisan solution to market structure as Republicans on the banking committee plan to pass a bill this month.