Tom Tugendhat, Tory chair of foreign affairs committee “To see their commander-in-chief [the US president, Joe Biden] call into question the courage of men I fought with – to claim that they ran – is shameful. Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have. I leave the house with one image. In the year that I was privileged to be the adviser to the governor of Helmand, we opened girls’ schools. The joy it gave parents to see their little girls going to school was extraordinary … The second image is one that the forever war that has just reignited could lead to. It is the image of a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier into our firebase and begging for help. There was nothing we could do. It was over. That is what defeat looks like; it is when you no longer have the choice of how to help. This does not need to be defeat, but at the moment it damn well feels like it.” Theresa May, former Tory prime minister “Was our intelligence really so poor, was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak, our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate? Or did we just feel we had to follow the US and hope that on a wing and a prayer it would be all right on the night? I am afraid that this has been a major setback for British foreign policy. We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words.”
Keir Starmer, Labour leader “The British government were wrong and complacent, the prime minister was wrong and complacent and, when he was not rewriting history, the prime minister was displaying the same appalling judgment and complacency last week.” Nusrat Ghani, Tory MP “This has been catastrophic, cack-handed, cruel and humiliating. It is a watershed in the failure of the west … I need to understand how our intelligence has failed, how the imagination of those providing the intelligence has failed, and if we’re relying on this intelligence going forward, how can we be sure that they know to do the right thing?” Caroline Lucas, Green party MP “We have to do whatever we can now to honour our promise to the people of Afghanistan. And that starts with fixing our failed refugee and asylum seeker system. For all the hand-wringing of government ministers in the past few days the reality is that their actions over the past few months have left thousands of ordinary Afghans in terrible danger.” Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader “The chaotic, ghastly departure, the way that people were falling off aircraft in their determination to get away, and the helicopters shipping people out, say terrible things about the values that we hold and those we wish to protect. This is a shame on all of us, not just America, but also the whole of Nato and here for us in this house.” Yvette Cooper, Labour chair of home affairs committee “One [Afghan organisation] has told me that a woman who worked on the UK aid programme for three years and is now in hiding in Kabul has said this weekend: ‘Only three weeks ago one of my neighbours told me that when they come he would tell them who I am and who my family is. A couple of days ago, a strange man told me in the streets: “I know where you work and who you are.”’” Dan Jarvis, Labour MP “Many of us who served in Afghanistan have a deep bond of affection for the Afghan people, and I had the honour of serving alongside them in Helmand. We trained together, fought together and, in some cases, died together. They were our brothers in arms. I shudder to think where those men are now. Many will be dead, and I know others now consider themselves to be dead men walking. Where were we in their hour of need? We were nowhere. That is shameful, and it will have a very long-lasting impact on Britain’s reputation right around the world.”