Afghanistan: FCDO Update

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 6th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting such cases and pay tribute to his work on the Council of Europe. We are clearly going to face challenging times and need to adjust our thinking to the new reality, but of course we will do everything we can to protect and preserve the gains in relation to girls’ education as well as wider social activity, including music.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Earlier, the Prime Minister said to the House,

“tell them that this country and the western world were protected from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan throughout that period.”

The Foreign Secretary furthered that by saying:

“First, we must prevent Afghanistan from ever again becoming a haven…for terrorists.”

I agree entirely with both statements, but we are putting a lot of trust in the murderous, medieval Taliban. What do we do if the training camps and terror networks return?

[Dominic Raab]

I share the hon. Gentleman’s concern, which is probably the single biggest concern of hon. Members across the House. In the last analysis, we reserve the right to exercise the right of self-defence, as we always do. It is not quite right to say that we trust the Taliban or that we can trust the Taliban. We need to be willing to engage and set some early tests—of which this is one—and then monitor them carefully and judge them by what they do, not just what they say.