Withdrawal caused a ‘wobble’ in the special relationship

THE “special relationship” between the UK and America has experienced a “wobble in confidence”, a senior minister said today in the wake of the hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan.

James Heappey, a defence minister, blamed an “optimism bias” among senior UK officials who wanted Afghanistan to succeed for meaning they did not think a swift collapse in the face of the Taliban would happen.

Speaking to Chopper’s Politics podcast, Mr Heappey said that while the relationship between London and Washington was not “in big trouble” there was a “wobble” in the special relationship.

He said: “There’s a wobble. But it’s not an institutional wobble. It’s a wobble in confidence. It’s a wobble in ‘mojo’.

And I’m really worried about that.” Mr Heappey said he felt that the US was having “a real crisis in confidence about its role in the world”.

Pointing to tomorrow’s 20th anniversary of the al-qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, he was struck by a nervousness in the US embassy in London about how to mark it. Mr Heappey described how a US official in the embassy a fortnight ago had “asked me my thoughts on how they should mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in London”. “This is your closest friend in the world, in a capital city where we felt deeply on September 11 2001 for what had happened. There was real solidarity. And you are nervous within your embassy in your closest ally’s capital about how you mark 9/11?”

Listen to the interview with James Heappey at playpodca.st/chopper