Sunshine trip Boris missed Biden call on Afghan crisis

BORIS Johnson missed a call with President Joe Biden and other G20 leaders about Afghanistan while he was on holiday last week.

The Prime Minister was in Marbella when the ‘Extraordinary Leaders’ Meeting On Afghanistan’ was held on Tuesday.

He declined an invitation to attend the meeting via video conference, despite the US President, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau all attending. Mr Johnson delegated it to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss instead.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi described the meeting as the ‘first multilateral response to the Afghan crisis’. The leaders discussed refugees, women, plans to

He delegated meeting to new Foreign Secretary

keep Kabul airport operational, and urging the Taliban to renounce terrorist groups.

This summer, then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab faced heavy criticism for refusing to fly back from his holiday in Crete when the Taliban descended on Kabul. Shortly afterwards, he was reshuffled out of the role.

The UK is continuing its efforts to get British nationals out of the country after hundreds were not rescued in time for the military withdrawal deadline.

No 10 would not say why Mr Johnson decided not to attend the Afghanistan call. Sources had said he was working on Government business on his holiday, and that he made calls to world leaders about the upcoming COP26 summit.

Mr Johnson left for his week-long holiday the previous Friday, along with his wife Carrie, who is pregnant with their second child, and son Wilfred. They stayed in a £25,000-a-week villa owned by Tory Minister and peer Zac Goldsmith, before flying back on Thursday.

It was the Prime Minister’s first holiday abroad since before the pandemic.