NO APOLOGY
As Boris gives his backing, not ONE word of remorse from besieged minister
DOMINIC Raab last night refused to apologise for failing to make a crucial phone call while he was on holiday to seek help for Afghan translators.
Boris Johnson insisted yesterday he ‘absolutely’ had full confidence in the Foreign Secretary as the Government mounted a frantic operation to shore up his precarious position.
But in an another damaging development last night, it that emerged Mr Raab did not call any of his foreign counterparts in the days leading up to the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul.
The Foreign Office had insisted he did not speak to the Afghan foreign minister last Friday – despite advice from senior officials – because he was ‘engaged on a range of other calls’.
But it is understood he just spoke to British officials and fellow ministers in the week before the Taliban took Kabul. Mr Raab, who was staying at a luxury beach resort in Crete, only started making calls to his foreign counterparts on the Sunday afternoon once the insurgents had entered the Afghan capital. The Foreign Office last night declined to comment.
The Mail revealed on Thursday that Mr Raab had been advised by senior officials to call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar to help get Afghan translators out of the country.
But he failed to do this and the call was delegated to the on-duty minister Lord Goldsmith. The Mail then revealed yesterday that the call in fact never actually ended up taking place.
Mr Raab insisted yesterday ministers had been ‘working tirelessly’ over the past week to evacuate British nationals and Afghans.
In his first full statement on the affair, he confirmed he had been advised to contact Mr Atmar last Friday but said the ‘call was delegated to a minister of state because I was prioritising security and capacity at the airport’.
‘In any event, the Afghan foreign minister agreed to take the call, but was unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation,’ he added.
But last night the Foreign Secretary faced fresh criticism for failing to apologise or include any hint of contrition in his statement.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said: ‘There is no defence for Dominic Raab’s shameful negligence and his failure to act may have cost lives. It is unbelievable that even now the Foreign Secretary is wasting time making excuses when a catastrophe is still unfolding in front of our eyes.’
Earlier, Lord Robertson, who was Nato secretary general on 9/11, accused Mr Raab of ‘a dereliction of duty of major consequence’. Asked if the Foreign Secretary’s statement had satisfactorily answered questions about his actions, the former defence secretary replied: ‘No, it doesn’t at all.’
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: ‘Foreign ministers only talk to foreign ministers – they don’t talk to junior ministers.
‘So he should have been talking to the foreign minister of Afghanistan much earlier than last Friday anyway.
‘Common sense would have suggested that the Foreign Secretary should have been trying to sort out the exit of our vulnerable people before that.’
The former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw said he would never delegate a call with his Afghan counterpart to another minister and he was ‘surprised’ that Mr Raab did so.
But the Prime Minister last night dismissed calls to sack his Foreign Secretary. Asked if he had full confidence in Mr Raab, Mr Johnson said: ‘Absolutely.’
Asked if people had been left in Afghanistan as a result of Mr Raab not making the phone call, he said: ‘No, I don’t think that’s the case.’