Calls increase for Dominic Raab to resign

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is under fire for declining to make a phone call to help evacuate Afghan interpreters, prompting calls for him to resign or be sacked.

Raab, who has been Foreign Secretary since July 2019, was advised to personally phone his Afghan counterpart for urgent support - but reports claim that the job was given to a junior minister.

Raab was advised by senior Foreign Office officials on 13 July that he should make contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar to get urgent assistance in rescuing Afghan interpreters who had worked for the British military. According to the Daily Mail, officials were informed Raab was unavailable.

The allegation follows news that Raab was on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday - the day Taliban militants entered Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. He has since stated that while he was away he had been directing his team and engaging with international partners.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, has said that ‘the Foreign Secretary should be ashamed and the Prime Minister has serious questions to answer over why he remains in the job’. Her calls for him to resign or be sacked have been echoed by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

MPs on all sides criticised the government's response to events in Afghanistan in the House of Commons on 18 August.