Dominic Raab ‘convinced PM he can stay on vacation’ in Afghanistan crisis | Dominic Rab

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A former defense secretary said the UK had failed to “stand up” to the US over a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, amid more questions about Dominic Raab’s absence over this past weekend.

Raab, the foreign minister, has faced repeated demands to resign to stay until Monday on a family holiday in Crete while the Afghan government collapses, delegating tasks to junior ministers.

The Sunday Times reported that Raab was told on Friday that he should return to the UK, but convinced Boris Johnson that he could stay in Crete for another two days. According to the report, officials felt that Raab had “prevented” the prime minister from agreeing.

The same report said Foreign Minister Tariq Ahmed, a conservative counterpart whose role covers South Asia, was also absent as of last Sunday on holiday in the UK.

Amid continuing recriminations over the apparent lack of preparation for a Taliban surge after the withdrawal of US and British forces, and chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, which saw more deaths reported in Sunday’s stampede, a senior Conservative MP said ministers should have done more to press on the United States.

Tobias Ellwood, a former defense and foreign secretary who now chairs the Defense Select Committee, said there was a clear lack of cohesion between the UK and the US.

“Why didn’t we stand up and tell the US, if you want to get the Afghans out – you have a duty of care for those people the Taliban will go after – don’t get your army out first, get the civilians out, and then back off?” he told Radio Times. “We did it in reverse.”

Ellwood said the US needs to extend its deadline at the end of the month to remove the last of its troops if people are evacuated.

He said: I am worried about two scenarios that may unfold. First, an isolated incident. A shootout between the rogue Taliban and an American or British soldier escalated and immediately the American commander said, OK, we have to get out of here and hit the exit button.

“Secondly, we will reach an end point when we have to close the gate and no more Afghans can be processed, and we start withdrawing ourselves.”

While Raab has been the focus of much of the criticism linked to the UK’s response, in particular his decision to delegate a phone call to a junior minister to his Afghan counterpart to discuss evacuations, there is also growing anger over the US role.

According to the Sunday Times, citing anonymous sources in Downing Street, Johnson has been critical to his aides about US President Joe Biden, saying, “only half joking”, that the UK would have been better off had Donald Trump won last year’s election.

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