When MPs returned to parliament on Wednesday to debate the situation in Afghanistan, it was Joe Biden who received the most criticism during the debate. But a close second in the firing line was the UK Foreign Secretary. After Dominic Raab waited until Sunday night to fly back from his holiday in Crete, opposition MPs were quick to go on the attack. When Raab asked Starmer what he would do differently give the complexity of the situation, the Labour leader replied: ‘I wouldn’t go on holiday when Kabul was falling’. The SNP’s Ian Blackford also joined in – suggesting Raab ought to be ashamed of himself.
While that strength of feeling isn’t quite so strong in the Conservative parliamentary party, there is anger that Raab’s holiday has made it easier for the UK government to come under attack for its response. MPs on recent calls with Raab over the assistance the UK is providing have been frustrated by the lack of concrete answers and how his team were caught on the hop.
‘Saying no-one could have foreseen this just doesn’t add up,’ says one of Raab’s Tory colleagues. Meanwhile,
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