MPs’ inquiry given further details of Britain’s mismanagement of Afghanistan exit with ‘people left to die at the hands of the Taliban’
Further evidence alleging that the government seriously mishandled the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been handed to a parliamentary inquiry examining the operation, the Observer has been told.
Details from several government departments and agencies are understood to back damning testimony from a Foreign Office whistleblower, who has claimed that bureaucratic chaos, ministerial intervention, and a lack of planning and resources led to “people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban”.
The Observer revealed in August that thousands of emails of urgent cases of Afghans in danger were being left unread for days at the height of the crisis, with the messages of senior MPs among those not to be opened. Even government ministers had emails that had not been addressed.
In an interview with the Observer, Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee which is examining the claims, said others had been in touch to disclose concerns. He described evidence from three senior Foreign Office officials last Tuesday, in which its permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton admitted remaining on holiday for 11 days after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, as “completely extraordinary”. He said he was now more convinced about the damning testimony his committee received from Raphael Marshall, a junior official who worked in the...
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