Dominic Raab has denied reports of him paddle-boarding on holiday when the Afghanistan capital fell to the Taliban as “nonsense”, as he sought to claim he was working and the sea was actually “closed”.
It comes as the foreign secretary continued to face questions over his holiday to Greece as the Taliban seized Afghanistan, and amid reports he was advised by No 10 officials to return — two days before he did.
But rejecting suggestions he was paddle-boarding as Kabul fell to the insurgents 10 days’ ago, the foreign secretary told Sky News: “Nonsense. The sea was actually closed — there was a red notice.”
After reports of holidaymakers claiming Mr Raab had been relaxing on the beach on Sunday 15 August, Mr Raab added: “The stuff about me lounging around the beach — nonsense.”
Mr Raab did reveal he had agreed with Boris Johnson to arrive back in the UK on 15 August, but dismissed reports he was told by Downing Street to return days earlier as the situation deteriorated as “speculation”.
In a series of broadcast interviews on Thursday, the foreign secretary also dismissed a poll showing a majority believed he should resign from the cabinet as not a “particularly accurate barometer” of what the public think
Following his handling of the initial phase of the crisis, a poll by Savanta ComRes for Left Food Forward showed that 51 per cent believed the foreign secretary should resign. The survey of 2,083 adults also showed that just 24 per cent disagreed.
But when quizzed on the poll, Mr Raab inaccurately claimed it was a “self-selecting reader poll” in a newspaper, adding it was “not a particular accurate barometer”.
Giving an update on the ongoing evacuation from Kabul, Mr Raab also revealed a further 2,000 people had been airlifted in the last 24-hour period — as western countries race to get people out before the 31 August deadline.
Quizzed on suggestions the withdrawal could begin with 24 to 48 hours, Mr Raab said: “I’m not going to give the precise timeline. “What we do know is that we are working towards the end of the month.
“The military planners will work out how much time they need to withdraw their equipment, their staff, and what’s really important is we will make the maximum use of all the time we have left.”
He said in the last 24 hours “we have secured 2,000 back to the UK, so the system is operating at full speed, at full capacity and we will use every last remaining hour and day to get everyone we can back, the British nationals, the Afghans who worked so loyally for us, we are getting the Chevening scholars back, also women’s rights defenders and journalists.”
“We will work to the end of August, but we will take back from that, you step back from that, the time that we need to withdraw our military operation.
“I can’t give you the precise details because we want to make sure we use every last hour and day to keep this rate up.”
