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Lack of leadership in London
"When the Taliban took Kabul, the Prime Minister, the then-Foreign Secretary, the Minister responsible for Afghanistan, and the FCDO’s top civil servant, Sir Philip Barton, were all on leave."
"As the Government mounted its response to the crisis, many officials, military personnel and others worked extremely hard under conditions of intense pressure, some also facing significant personal risk. Unfortunately, their work was undermined by systemic failures."
What’s the report actually about?
Planning for withdrawal of UK troops
It was known in February 2020 that the US planned to withdraw from Afghanistan, however, the government and civil servants suffered from an “optimism bias” that the US would change its mind about withdrawing, meaning the government was not prepared.
“The UK government failed adequately to shape or respond to Washington’s decision to withdraw, to predict the speed of the Taliban’s takeover, or to plan and prepare for the evacuation of our Afghan partners,” the report said.
“Most damning for the Foreign Office is the total absence of a plan for evacuating Afghans who supported the UK mission, without being directly employed by the UK government, despite knowing 18 months before the collapse of Afghanistan that an evacuation might be necessary.”
The FCDO “failed to make the necessary preparations for withdrawal” by laying the groundwork for an evacuation with third countries.
On the evacuation
The report said the “mismanagement” of the evacuation in a crucial period “likely cost hundreds of people their chance to leave the country, and as a result likely cost lives.”
The report heavily criticised the FCDO’s top civil servant Sir Philip Barton who did not return from leave until the civilian evacuation was over. The report concluded he ‘should consider his position,’ saying his decision to not return whilst Kabul fell was “difficult to understand and impossible to excuse.”
The probe said the absence of leadership – both ministerial and official, when Kabul fell was ‘inexcusable and a grace indictment on those supposedly in charge.’
Along with Sir Philip, the then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and PM Boris Johnson were also on leave when the Taliban took control of Kabul which “marks a fundamental lack of seriousness, grip or leadership at a time of national emergency”.
Cats and dogs – did the PM lie over the animal evacuation?
The report said there was a lack of a line of command within the government and highlighted “untraceable and unaccountable political interventions.”
The controversy around Nowzad started when a British ex-soldier who was running an animal charity in Afghanistan – Nowzad, wanted to evacuate his charity’s cats and dogs. Accusations of prioritising animals over people swirled around. The ex-soldier Pen Farthing and around 150 of his charity’s animals were eventually evacuated via a privately chartered plane. The charity’s Afghan staff were turned away at the airport due to not having the right visas.
At the time, the government denied any help in evacuating Pen Farthings animals. In the report, the committee says: “We make no criticism of the organisation, its staff, or those who campaigned on its behalf: they were open about their case and objectives, which were in keeping with their stated priorities. The same cannot be said for the Government.”
The report found Pen Farthing was the only passenger on the 230-seat private jet and that Boris Johnson probably intervened to demand the evacuation.
The Foreign Office was further condemned for being “intentionally evasive, and often deliberately misleading” about what had happened.
“Senior officials believed that the prime minister played a greater role in some decisions than has been admitted,” the report said.
