Newark MP Robert Jenrick expresses heartbreak over Afghanistan scenes as MPs debate the rapidly-deteriorating situation
Newark MP Robert Jenrick has expressed his heartbreak at the collapse of the Afghanistan government and the freer state it was the mission to create.
MPs were recalled to Parliament yesterday to debate the rapidly-deteriorating situation.
Mr Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “I’m heartbroken to see the collapse of the freer society we’ve tried to build in Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban, whose barbaric practices brought it to its knees in the 1990s.
“The people of Afghanistan are in all our thoughts right now, as we watch the gut-wrenching scenes in Kabul.”
“When the US decided to leave, a decision of both Presidents Trump and Biden, there was no realistic prospect of the UK continuing alone.
“It is undoubtedly a tragic conclusion to our involvement and the US’s decision will cause great harm to the reputation of the West and embolden our enemies.
“I want to thank the many veterans in our community for their service. They fought, in some cases sustained life-changing injuries or even died, in the service of our country.
“Their actions have helped to keep us safer, by degrading Al Queda and other terrorist groups for 20 years. That was the original mission after 9/11.They also helped to achieve two decades in which life in Afghanistan, for women and girls was incomparably better.”
Mr Jenrick and his department are leading on the resettlement of Afghans who worked alongside the British during the conflict, of which two families will be housed in Newark and Sherwood.
“We have a good scheme, now supported by a quarter of local councils, including Nottinghamshire. We have to help as many of those who have showed courage and loyalty to us as we can,” he said.
Mr Jenrick’s predecessor, Patrick Mercer, who left the army as commander of the county regiment to stand as an MP, and was shadow Homeland Security Minister, said he found it grievous that the capitulation had come about so close to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which was the catalyst for the war in Afghanistan.
Amid scenes of desperate Afghans clinging to the undercarriages of US military planes taking part in the airlift of American citizens and their support staff, he said: “What must happen immediately is that the many Afghans who fought alongside us have to be helped and welcomed here.
“We cannot leave their fates in the hands of the Taliban.
“I do find it odd and also grievous for Biden to essentially say ‘we surrender’ so close to the anniversary of September 11.”
Mr Mercer said the Taliban offensive should not have come as a surprise, adding that it should have been obvious when President Trump signed the peace deal with the Taliban, and again when his successor President Biden gave a commitment to withdrawal.
He said he realised two months ago, at his kitchen table in Nottinghamshire, that Kabul would fall, and fall quickly, without a ring of coalition steel surrounding it so he failed to understand how the intelligence communities’ analysis was so faulty.
Mr Mercer said: “Yet, we have been caught with our pants down by the speed in which the Taliban have taken control.
“Part of war is deceiving your opponent. Is it in any way surprising the Taliban did the opposite of what they said to Biden and were readying themselves to retake the country?
“You can arm them and train the Afghan army but they aren’t the Grenadier Guards. When things started to go horribly wrong, they voted with their feet.”
