Tory MP Says UK Government Must Not "Turn A Blind Eye" To Afghanistan

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has repeated his call for the UK government to engage with the Taliban and reestablish the UK Embassy in Afghanistan, despite being “bruised” by the negative backlash to his comments about the Taliban last summer.

In a video posted on social media in July 2023, Ellwood described visiting Afghanistan and seeing it as a “country transformed” since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. There was a huge critical backlash and a couple of months later, Ellwood stepped down as chair of the Defence Select Committee.

Speaking to PoliticsHome ahead of hosting a debate on UK government policy on Afghanistan in Parliament on Wednesday, Ellwood said that he was determined to push the government to show “strategic leadership” on Afghanistan and other foreign policy issues.

He said that while it was “understandable” that he had received criticism as his comments had been a “massive jump” from the consensus, he insisted that the UK should not ignore the “very difficult subject” of Afghanistan.

“What happened to me was bruising, there's no doubt about it,” he said.

“We need to build and encourage political curiosity, it's our job [as MPs] to ask questions and that should be encouraged. We're not a tickbox parliament that simply stands up and then frantically agrees with whips’ handouts.”

He called on the government to not "ignore" Afghanistan and to reestablish the Embassy there, pointing out that Japan and the EU have already done so.

“Can we really say that our current strategy of shouting from afar is having any difference on the ground in Afghanistan? Abandoning a country for which we have such a close history is irresponsible, not just from a moral perspective but from a geopolitical one, given the fallout