Tory MP Tobias Ellwood apologises for praising Afghanistan under Taliban rule
Tobias Ellwood, the chair of Parliament’s Defence Select Committee, has apologised for a video in which he claimed Afghanistan had been “transformed” under the Taliban.
In the clip posted to Twitter from Afghanistan on Monday, Mr Ellwood, a former defence minister, said corruption was falling and security had “vastly improved” – with no reference to the harsh restrictions re-imposed by the Taliban on rights for women and girls.
He faced anger from colleagues and accusations of being a “Taliban appeaser” after suggesting Britain should re-open its embassy in Kabul and restart relations with the militant group, which ousted the democratically elected government and swept back into power in 2021 as the US withdrew from Afghanistan.
Speaking on TalkTV on Wednesday night, Mr Ellwood said: “I step forward on many occasions and say things that other MPs won’t say. Occasionally, yes, I say things the wrong way. Because of Twitter, a storm then comes about and I have to deal with it. The last couple of days have probably been the most miserable as a member of Parliament. I got it wrong… but I stand by the fact that Afghanistan is in a very bad place.”
He added: “I’m very, very sorry that my reflection of my visit could have been much better worded and have been taken out of context … I could only say so many things in that video, and I make it very, very clear, I put my hand up and say it could have been much better done.”
Mr Ellwood has since pulled down his original video.
The about-turn comes after Rishi Sunak said he would look into the details of the incident.
Mark Francois, a Tory MP who also sits on the committee, pointed out at PMQs that 457 members of the UK Armed Forces were killed in Afghanistan and that he was stunned to see Mr Ellwood’s video praising the Taliban regime.
Mr Francois said: “I and some of my colleagues on the Commons Defence Committee were absolutely stunned to see a video posted by our own chairman lauding the Taliban’s government of Afghanistan, not mentioning they’re still trying to identify and kill Afghan civilians who sided with Nato forces, and also not mentioning the fact they don’t like girls to go to school.
“So can I make plain that this was not in our name? And can I have the Prime Minister’s assurance that this silly and naive act wasn’t in his name either?”
In response, the Prime Minister paid tribute to British servicemen and women, adding: “We have repeatedly and will continue to repeatedly call out the human rights abuses that we see around the world and he mentions rightly the prohibition on women being educated in Afghanistan … but we will also continue to have dialogues with regimes.
“That doesn’t mean that we consider those regimes to be legitimate or approve of their actions, but that is all part of establishing normal diplomatic presence in countries when the situation allows, but I’ll very happily look into the specific case that he brought up.”
Mr Ellwood had defended his comments on Tuesday, insisting that stability in the country was on a “different level” than during conflict.
He told BBC News: “The current strategy of shouting from afar is not working. We need to engage more directly, more robustly.”
The UK withdrew its military and diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in August 2021 after the Taliban took over Kabul.
Since then, teenage girls have been banned from going to school.
The row comes as Afghan women protest a Taliban-imposed ban on beauty salons.
The Taliban said earlier this month they were giving all salons in Afghanistan one month to wind down their businesses and close shop, drawing concern from international officials worried about the impact on female entrepreneurs
Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot their guns into the air to break up a protest in Kabul on Wednesday.
“We are here for justice,” said one protester who identified herself as Farzana. “We want work, food and freedom.”
One woman, who did not give her name for fear of reprisals, added: “The purpose of our demonstration was that they (the Taliban) should reconsider and reverse the decision to close beauty salons because this is about our lives.”
Meanwhile, the Taliban-run Ministry for Vice and Virtue, said Wednesday it was destroying goods and instruments used for the “promotion of music and corruption” and posted photos of bonfires on Twitter.
“These materials, which were collected from immoral programs in Kabul and some provinces in the past few months, and which caused the loss of our youth and the deterioration of society, were destroyed according to Sharia (Islamic law),” the ministry tweeted.
