Boris Johnson Endures Parliament Rage After Biden's Afghanistan Withdrawal

i know all members want to join me in sending our condolences and sympathies to all those who've been affected in this terrible incident i know that the house will also want to remember on this day when we're here to discuss the situation in afghanistan that all the service personnel of this country who have lost their lives have been injured during this conflict and i know there is no constituency that hasn't been touched none more so than the two tragic serving personnel from children who'd lost their lives we all have reason to be here i wish to remind the house that the provisions which allow for the hybrid participation in the chamber are no longer in place all contributions to proceedings will once again be made from within this chamber i remind members that if they participate in the debate they should be present throughout most if not all of that debate and certainly at least the opening speeches and two speeches following their contribution and be here for the wind-up speeches if the house divides today members should then to both lobbies from the members lobby end of the chamber doorkeepers will be on harm to assist members participate in the vision i will instruct the doors to be locked 10 minutes after the start of the division i'd also like to say thank you to all the staff of the house that's made today possible for giving up their time breaking their holidays to ensure that this important debate goes ahead we now come to motion number one related to the sittings of the house a minister to move to move the question is on the other paper as many of that opinion say aye the country know i think the eyes have it the eyes have it we now come to motion number two on business of the house i wish to inform the house that have selected a manuscript amendment to this motion the amendment is in the name of the right honourable member for holton bryson hauden and the honourable member for welding and is as follows at line three leave out 2 30 and insert 5 pm i call the minister to move the motion um mr speaker i'm delighted to move the motion and to inform the house her majesty's government is willing to accept the manuscript to mention the amendment in the name my honorable and right honourable friend we're completely in line with thursday sitting so i thank i thank the leader of the house for that i think that's important so the original question that the house today the question is that the amendment has been accepted i think we can all agree on that do you need to speak we're all happy that's great i want to get on with the debate so there we are right we've accepted that we now come to motion number three in the name of the prime minister i will call the prime minister to move the motion prime minister [Applause] mr speaker i beg to move and i begin by thanking you and all the parliamentary staff for enabling us to meet this morning before i turn to today's debate i'm sure the house will want to join you mr speaker and me in sending our condolences to the family and friends of those killed in the appalling shooting in plymouth last week investigations are of course continuing but we will learn every possible lesson from this tragedy mr speaker i know that members across the house share my concern about the situation in afghanistan the issues it raises for our own security and the fears of many remaining in that country especially women and children the sacrifice in afghanistan is seared into our national consciousness with 150 000 people serving there from across the length and breadth of the united kingdom including a number of members on all sides of the house whose voices will be particularly important today and so it's absolutely right that we should come together for this debate and mr speaker yes i uh will certainly give way to my right honourable friend i thank the prime minister for giving way as someone who opposed this nation-building intervention it now brings its responsibilities in or in addition to getting our nationals out safely and in offering a generous welcome to the many refugees will the prime minister assure me that all necessary resources are given to those afghans and others who have helped the british council in its work including the promotion of women's rights because many are in fear of their lives of retribution from the taliban the arab scheme is slow moving at the moment will you commit the necessary resource because the window of opportunity is narrow and no one must be left behind can i just remind people if you are going to be you've got to be short if you intervene more than twice you'll understand why you've gone down the list if there was one prime minister [Laughter] uh uh i i thank my honorable friend i should i can i can assure him that i will uh and as i will be saying in just a few moments we will be supporting uh doing everything we can to support those who have helped the uk mission in afghanistan and investing everything that we can to support the the wider area around uh afghanistan and to do everything we can to avert a humanitarian crisis mr speaker it's almost 20 years since the united states suffered the most catastrophic attack on its people since the second world war in which 67 british citizens also lost their lives at the hands of murderous terrorist groups incubated in afghanistan in response nato invoked article 5 of its treaty for the first and only time in its history and the united kingdom amongst others joined america in going into afghanistan on a mission to extirpate al-qaeda in that country and to do whatever we could to stabilize afghanistan in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew that we would face and we succeeded in that core mission and yes i will give way to my rather girlfriend i'm grateful mr speaker but would he agree that we are actually ceding back the country to the very insurgency that we went into defeat in the first place and the reputation of the west to support democracies across the world has suffered there are so many lessons to be learned from what happened over the last 20 years will he now agree to an independent formal inquiry into the conduct in afghanistan mr speaker as i said in the house just a few weeks ago there was an extensive defense review about the afghan mission after the combat mission ended in 2014 and i believe that uh most of the key questions have already been extensively gone into and it's important mr speaker that we in this house should today be able to scrutinize events as they unfold as i was saying mr speaker we succeeded in that core mission and the training camps in the mountain ranges of afghanistan were destroyed al-qaeda plots against this country were foiled because our serving men and women were there and no successful terrorist attacks against the west have been mounted from afghan soil for two uh happily give way to my right on the fence prime minister can i just take him back to his remarks in the house of july the eighth when he referred to uh the assessment that he'd made there's clearly been a catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares can the prime minister set out for the house how we may assure ourselves that in future years we can make sure there are no future terrorist attacks put together in afghanistan that take place here in the united kingdom uh mr speaker i'm i i think it'd be fair to say that the events in afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than i think even the taliban themselves predicted what is not true is to say that the uk government uh was unprepared or did not foresee this because uh it was certainly part of our planning of pitting the very difficult uh logistical operation for the withdrawal of uh uk nationals has been under preparation uh for many months mr speaker and i can tell the house that the uh decision to commission the emergency handling center at the airport the commissioning of that center took place uh two weeks ago mr speaker so i if i would just if i could just uh make a little bit more progress uh mr speaker just a little bit i will certainly give away in a moment alongside this core mission we worked for a better future for the people of afghanistan and the heroism and tireless work of our armed forces contributed to national elections as well as the promotion and protection of human rights and equalities in a way that many in afghanistan had not previously known whereas 20 years ago almost no girls went to school and women were banned from positions of governance now 3.6 million girls have been in school this year alone and women hold over a quarter of the seats in afghan in the afghan parliament but but mr speaker we must be honest and accept that huge difficulties were encountered at each turn and some of this progress is fragile i will give way to the honorable gentleman i think the prime minister they're doing away i pay tribute to our ambassador and the diplomatic team in kabul and our armed forces on the ground who have been evacuating people in extraordinary circumstances but one of the consequences of the rapidity of the collapse of kabul is that many people have been left trapped unable to access the airport unable to evacuate including many of those who should be coming to this country who served us bravely in that country and many women who are particularly at risk many of us across this house would have experienced chaos in the last 24 48 hours in communicating information through to the ground to get some of those people out of the country so can the prime minister give us some assurances about how we can get that information through so that we can get those brave people out of that including many at risk of their lives right now in kabul well he honorable gentleman raises exactly the right uh question i spoke this morning to ambassador salary bristow as well as to bring a deer down blanford who's handling the uh the evacuation and it'd be fair to say the situation has stabilized since uh the weekend but it remains uh precarious and the uk uh uh officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people those that need to come out whether from the arab scheme or the eligible persons to get from kabul to to the airport and at the moment it would be fair to say that the taliban are allowing that evacuation uh to go ahead but the most important the most important thing mr speaker is that we get this done in as expeditious a fashion as we can and that's what we are doing and i may say that i'm grateful uh not just to the uk forces who are now out there helping to stabilize the airport but also to the us forces as well if i could just make some some progress mr speaker the combat phase of our mission ended in 2014 when we brought the vast majority of our troops home and handed over responsibility for security to the afghans themselves and we continued to support their efforts even at that stage we should remember that conflict was continuous and that in spite of the bravery and sacrifice of the afghan army and we should never forget that 69 000 of those afghan army troops have given their lives in this conflict significant parts of the country remain contested or under taliban control and so when after two decades the americans prepared to take their long predicted and well-trailed step of a final extraction of their forces we looked at many options mr speaker including the potential for staying longer ourselves finding new partners or even increasing our presence so i'll give way uh to my honourable friend the prime i thank the prime minister for giving way will you share with the house what assessment uk intelligence services made of the relative fighting capacity currently of the afghan army and the taliban and will he tell us what representations the uk government made to our u.s allies with regards to their timetable for withdrawal from afghanistan i'm grateful to honourable friend i think that the uh when he asks for a commentary on the respective military uh potential power of the uh the taliban and the afghan forces it's it's pretty clear from uh what has happened that the collapse of the afghan forces has been much faster than expected and as for as for the uh our nato allies and allies around the world when it came for us to look at the the options that this country might have in view of the american decision uh to withdraw mr speaker we came up against this hard reality that since 2009 america has deployed 98 of all weapons released from nato aircraft in afghanistan and at the peak of the operation when there were 132 000 troops on the ground 90 000 of them mr speaker were american the west could not continue this u.s led mission a mission conceived and executed in support and defense of america without american logistics without u.s air power and without american might and i do not believe you i'm very grateful to my right honourable friend for giving way i know to the point that he's making about the importance of american support for our efforts in afghanistan and those of our allies but will he please set out when he first spoke personally to yen stoltenberg secretary general of nato to discuss with him the possibility of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace the american support in afghanistan i i have to i'm i'm grateful to my right honourable friend i spoke to uh to secretary general's talk about in the uh the other day about nato's continuing role in afghanistan but i really think that i really think that it is uh an illusion uh to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or or the or for a military solution uh imposed by nato in afghanistan mr speaker that idea ended with the combat mission in 2014 and i do not believe that that today i do not believe that deploying tens of thousands of british troops uh to fight the taliban is an option that no matter how sincerely people may advocate it and i i appreciate their sincerity but i do not believe that that is an option that would commend itself either to the british people or mr speaker to this house mr speaker we must deal with the position as it now is accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved and i will give way to the right honourable lady i i thank the prime minister uh for giving way he seemed to be making an argument earlier that he had anticipated something similar to what went on by having the rapid response force ready and waiting why then was he and the foreign secretary both on their holidays when this [Music] mr speaker the government has been working around the clock to deal with the unfolding situation and we must deal with we must deal with the world as it is accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved and the uk will work with our international partners on a shared plan to support the people of afghanistan and to contribute to regional stability there will be five parts mr speaker to this approach first our immediate focus in just a minute our immediate focus must be on helping those to whom we have direct obligations by evacuating uk nationals together with those afghans who have assisted our efforts over the past 20 years and i know the whole house will join me in paying tribute to the bravery and commitment of our ambassador solorie bristol i give way to the right gentleman thank you prime minister for giving away on that particular point he will be aware that there are 228 missionaries in afghanistan currently under sentence of death those mysteries need to be taken out of afghanistan of course there are tens of thousands of others who are under sentence of death and fear for their life will the prime minister assure the house that every effort will be made to bring back to safe haven people whose lives are under threat as a result of the catastrophe and foreign policy episode that has gone on in that country uh i i thank the right honourable gentleman for raising uh the very needy case that he does and i'm sure that colleagues across the house literally every every member would i imagine has received messages from people who are who know someone who needs to get out of afghanistan and i can tell uh the right honourable that we are doing everything we can to help out of that country those people and to whom we owe mr speaker a debt of obligation and on that point i want to repeat my thanks and not just to laurie bristow but also to the commander on the ground brigadier dan blanchford and the entire british team in kabul i can tell the house that we have so far i'm gonna make some progress mr speaker we have so far secured the safe return of 306 uk nationals and 2052 afghan nationals as part of our resettlement program with a further 2 000 afghan applications completed and many more being processed uk officials are working round the clock to keep the exit door open in the most difficult circumstances and actively seeking those we believe are eligible but as yet i'm registered and i give way to the honourable gentleman i thank them for gavin waken explain then how many people think are still eligible for relocation and are still to sign up he says doing everything they can to get these people out so what does everything they can mean how are they identifying these people where they are especially already in hiding and fear of their lives that's why mr speaker it's been so important that we maintain a presence at uh kabul airport and that's why we've been getting the message out that we want people to to come through and as i said mr speaker earlier on uh it is important uh for everybody to understand that at the moment in the days that we have ahead of us which may be short but at the moment this is an environment in which the taliban are permitting this evacuation to take place mr speaker these are interpreters they are locally engaged staff and others who have risked their lives supporting our military efforts and seeking to secure new freedoms for their country we are proud to bring these brave afghans to our shores and we continue to appeal for more to come forward and i did away with pleasure grateful to the i'm very grateful to the prime minister the home secretary announced this morning that 20 000 that the uk will be taking 20 000 refugees from afghanistan but that only 5 000 will be able to come this year what are the 15 000 meant to do hang around and wait until they've been executed yeah exactly mr speaker that's uh the the 5 000 on whom we're spending 200 million to to bring a further 5 000 on top of the uh i think it will be a 10 000 altogether uh that we bring in under the uh the arab and other programs uh we will we will be increasing that number over the over the coming uh years to as i said two to twenty thousand but the bulk of the effort of this country will be directed and should be directed mr speaker to supporting people in afghanistan and in the region mr speaker in order to prevent a worse humanitarian crisis and i believe and and i tell the house that in that conviction i am i am supported very strongly uh both by president macron france and by chancellor merkel of germany we are also mr speaker doing everything possible to accelerate the visas for the third the member for heinbern can't be like a drawn in the chamber completely above everybody all the way through stand up and down please not just help her prime minister mr speaker i was telling the house that uh we are making sure uh that we bring back the 35 brilliant evening scholars so that they can come and study in our great universities uh we're deploying an additional 800 british troops to support this evacuation operation and i can assure the house that we will continue uh these of this operation for as long as conditions at the airport allow and i would give way uh to the uh to the honorable lady thank you prime minister um mr speaker as of last week it was still home office policy that we would send people back to kabul because we thought kabul was safe can the prime minister now also confirm it's not just about people coming out of afghanistan it's about keeping people safe here and we will not send people back to this nightmare she's entirely right we will not uh be sending people back to uh to afghanistan and nor by the way mr speaker uh we'll be will be allowing people to come from afghanistan to this country in an indiscriminate way we want to be generous but we must make sure that we look after our own uh security and over the over the coming weeks we will redouble our efforts uh working with others to protect the uk homeland and all our citizens and interests from any threat that may emanate from a taliban controlled afghanistan from terrorism to the narcotics trade and i give way to my [Music] [Applause] that we have to do everything we can to support those who have supported us like the royal marine pen farthing and his um nasa charity of veterinary staff and their immediate family who now need safe passage back to the uk mr speaker i think like many of us i have been extensively lobbied on behalf of uh the excellent work done by mr penn father i'm well aware of uh his his calls all the wonderful things that he he has done and for uh for animals in uh in afghanistan i can tell uh my old friend that we will do everything we can to help uh mr penn farthing and others who face particular difficulty like like himself and but as i say without in any way jeopardizing our own national security these are concerns shared across the international community from the region itself to all the nato alliance and indeed all five permanent members of the un security council and i will chair a virtual meeting of the g7 in the coming days third mr speaker we also have in a minute we also have an enduring commitment to all the afghan people and now more than ever we must reaffirm that commitment our efforts must be focused on supporting the afghan people in the region itself particularly those fleeing conflict or the threat of violence we therefore call on the united nations to lead a new humanitarian effort in this region and i give way to the right honourable lady i thank the prime minister for giving way and i welcome his commitment to support in the region and also the government's commitment to a resettlement program but could he confirm the home secretary announced in 2019 that the uk would continue a resettlement scheme of 5 000 refugees a year after the syrian scheme closed could he confirm that the announcement today of an afghan resettlement scheme is in addition to that existing 5 000 resettlement commitment as opposed to simply being a refocusing or a displacement of that existing 5 000 a year resettlement program i'm very grateful to the right honourable lady opposite because i think she's asked a question that uh formed itself in many people's minds uh about the the five thousands and yes uh indeed the five thousand that uh extra and the resettlement scheme are additional to those already announced and uh we will support uh those people in coming to this country we will also support the uh wider international community in delivering on humanitarian projects in the region by doubling doubling mr speaker the amount of humanitarian and development assistance that we had previously committed to afghanistan this year with new funding with new funding the new weight print mr speaker taking this up to 286 million pounds with immediate effect and we call on others 286 million pounds with immediate effect we call on others to work together on a shared humanitarian effort focusing on helping the most vulnerable in what will be formidably difficult circumstances and i i give way to my real friend i'm grateful to i'm grateful to the prime minister and he's being very generous with his time over the past 20 years there have been some 50 nato and partner nations that have been involved in afghanistan i welcome the measures that have been proposed by the uk and other countries such as the u.s canada france germany and so on however there are many countries still who have been involved in afghanistan in recent years who have still yet to come to the plate and to recognize their responsibility in helping these people at this desperate time with the prime minister inform the house what is being done to encourage these other countries to take up their responsibility and help these people in afghanistan uh my righteous friend makes an excellent point mr speaker and that's why uh the uk has uh chaired the security council of the uh of the un and asked to put a motion together with our french friends uh to get the world to focus on the humanitarian needs of of afghanistan and we'll be doing the same thing in all if in nato in in the g7 and the other bodies in which we have a leadership role and we want to we want all these countries to step up as he rightly says mr speaker and focus on the most vulnerable in what will be formidably difficult circumstances fourth uh mr speaker i've given away i think you'll agree uh quite a lot already this morning and uh i know that uh thanks to uh the generosity of the uh of yourself mr speaker and the house there is now ample time for debate until later on this afternoon i think many members will be able to uh get their points across i therefore intend mr speaker buy or leave to make some progress fourth while we must focus on the region itself we will also create safe and legal routes for those afghans most in need to come and settle here in the uk so in addition to those afghans with whom we've worked directly i can announce today that we're committing to relocating another 5 000 afghans this year with a new and bespoke resettlement scheme focusing on the most vulnerable particularly women and children and we will keep this under review for future years with the potential of accommodating up to 20 000 over the long term and so taken together mr speaker mr speaker i've been very generous with my interventions i think you will agree already i've made my i made my position clear taken together mr speaker we are committing almost half a billion pounds of humanitarian funding to support the afghan people fifth mr speaker we must also face the reality of a change of regime in afghanistan and as president of the g7 the uk will work to unite the international community behind a clear plan for dealing with this regime in a unified and concerted way over the last three days i've spoken with the nato and un secretary general with president biden with chancellor merkel with president macron and prime minister khan we are clear and we have agreed that it would be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in kabul prematurely or bilaterally instead those countries that care about afghanistan's future should work towards common conditions about the conduct of the new regime before deciding together whether to recognize it and on what terms we will judge this regime based on the choices it makes and by its actions rather than by its words on its attitude to terrorism to crime and narcotics as well as humanitarian access and the rights of girls to receive an education defending human rights will remain of the highest priority and we will use every available political and diplomatic means to ensure that those human rights remain at the top of the international agenda mr speaker our united kingdom has a role call of honor that bears the names of 457 service men and women who gave their lives in some of the world's harshest terrain and many others who bear injuries to this day fighting in what had become the epicenter of global terrorism and even amid the heart-wrenching scenes we see today i believe they should be proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them because they conferred benefits that are lasting and inerradicable on millions of people in one of the poorest countries on earth and they provided vital protection for two decades to this country and the rest of the world they gave their all for our safety and we owe it to them to give our all to prevent afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorism because no matter no matter how grim the lessons of the past the future is not yet written and at this bleak turning point we must help the people of afghanistan to choose the best of all their possible futures and in the un the g7 in nato with friends and partners around the world that is the critical task on which this government is now urgently engaged and will be engaged in the days to come the question is that this house has considered the situation in afghanistan can i suggest about benches we'll be starting with seven minutes and now i call on the leader of the opposition right on

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 793,927

Keywords: UK PM Boris Johnson, Afghanistan, Taliban

Id: My8BIYbSqAU

Length: 33min 24sec (2004 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021