The UK government must show leadership over the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, the Labour leader has said, as a former head of the British army called on the prime minister to launch an urgent humanitarian aid operation.
Keir Starmer said there was a risk of a global terror group taking control of the country after the withdrawal of British and US forces, while Richard Dannatt said there was still time to show Afghans they were not being completely abandoned.
What I want to see is our government stepping up and leading this, and calling for an urgent meeting of Nato and an urgent UN security council meeting,” said Starmer.
“We have obligations to Afghanistan, we made promises to Afghanistan and we cannot walk away and let this turn into a humanitarian crisis, probably a refugee crisis as well. There is a real risk that international terrorism will take hold again in Afghanistan, so we can’t walk away and undermine the legacy of the last 20 years.”
