Sir Laurie Bristow, London’s man in Afghanistan, has been widely praised for helping thousands of UK citizens evacuate the Middle Eastern country after it was taken over by the Taliban following the terror group’s astonishing seizure of Kabul last Sunday.
But a report by the Sunday Times alleges that all Embassy staff – including the Ambassador – were due to leave Afghanistan on Saturday night, but that a senior Foreign Office mandarin phoned Sir Laurie and ordered him to remain in Kabul to help British nationals.
A Whitehall source told the paper: ‘It was pretty late. There was a flight preparing to take off.’ The report suggests that Sir Laurie was forced to stay in Afghanistan while Mr. Raab was on holiday in Crete.
The Foreign Secretary is accused of refusing an order by Downing Street on Friday, August 13 to return to London immediately as the situation in Kabul deteriorated and had instead delayed his homecoming until the early hours of Monday morning.
