Wes Streeting for Ilford North
In my Ilford Recorder column this month I’ve written about my anger at the Government’s disastrous handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has left innocent people to die and made our own country more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
There are not words to convey the anger I feel about the catastrophe that has unfolded as a result of the United States’ deal with the Taliban and the failure of our own government to properly plan for our withdrawal.
We have seen on our television screens some of the human misery that has been inflicted on the Afghan people.
But things are even worse than people realise: civilians, including children, arriving at Kabul airport with bullet wounds from Taliban “crowd control”; infants flung over the fence by desperate parents wanting their children to escape to safety; and the photographs and footage I have been sent which appears to show Afghan women beaten in the streets by the Taliban.
My staff and I have done our very best to help Afghans in our community to help their families to escape, but it is not even clear that our emails and messages to the government have been read.
Our government had 18 months to prepare. 18 months. Yet even as disaster unfolded and British lives were at risk, the foreign secretary didn’t even return from his holiday.
The anger at the prime minister and foreign secretary is deep and sincerely felt by MPs across all parties.
This is the biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez. The return of the Taliban has crushed hope of a better future for the people of Afghanistan. It risks our own national security, too.