"Dominic Raab will go down as one of the worst Foreign Secretaries in history," one MP tells LFF.

Dominic Raab should resign as Foreign Secretary over his handling of the crisis in Afghanistan, voters say, according to new polling for Left Foot Forward.

Raab has faced mounting calls to quit for remaining on a family holiday in Crete until this Monday – while the Afghan government collapsed. He was accused of delegating crucial tasks to junior ministers, while failing to call the Afghan foreign minister. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and Plaid Cymru have all called for Raab, who has been in post since 2019, to resign.

The new polling comes as Boris Johnson chairs an emergency virtual meeting of G7 leaders this afternoon to discuss the chaos in Kabul, as international forces leave the country. There is just one full week to finish the mass evacuation of the Afghan capital, following the US’ moves to withdraw its troops.

The poll by Savanta ComRes, conducted over the weekend, reveals that 51% of voters think that Raab should resign, to just to 24% who disagree (one in four – 26% – say they do not know). Worryingly for the Foreign Secretary, a plurality – 41% – of Conservative voters think he should quit, to 38% who do not. Three quarters (74%) of Labour voters think Raab should resign, a figure reflected among supporters of other opposition parties.

Much of the polling was conducted before fresh revelations emerged at the weekend alleging that Dominic Raab persuaded the PM he could stay on holiday while thousands of Brits (including British-Afghans) and refugees were desperately trying to flee the now Taliban-ruled country.

Responding to the poll, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP told LFF: “There is no question that Dominic Raab must resign. He failed to return from holiday. He failed to pick up the phone. He failed to take action to save lives.

“Dominic Raab will go down as one of the worst Foreign Secretaries in history. He has personally overseen the biggest foreign policy disaster in our lifetimes, and as a result, our country is no longer as safe. 

“He has shamed Britain and is no longer fit to represent our country.”

Benali Hamdache, migrant and refugee support spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales, said: “It’s hard to understate the collective governmental failure on Afghanistan. There was no prediction on how fragile the Ghani government was. No plan on how to support the Afghan people. No leadership at the Foreign Office. 

“Instead of dealing with the crisis Dominic Raab is having to defend his absence. His row with Boris exposes the cabinet as both shameless and reckless. Everyone deserves better than this. Dominic Raab should go.”

Labour pointed to comments from Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy MP, noting: “How can Boris Johnson allow the Foreign Secretary to continue in his role after yet another catastrophic failure of judgement? 

“If Dominic Raab doesn’t have the decency to resign, the Prime Minister must show a shred of leadership and sack him.”

The government itself has also come under heavy criticism for plans to accept just 5,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the next year. Raab has defended his own handling of the crisis in an article for Boris Johnson’s former employer, the right-wing Telegraph.

The question was as follows: Following events last week in Afghanistan, it has emerged that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was ‘too busy’ to speak to his Afghan counterpart on the telephone in order to help evacuate Afghan translators who helped UK forces, and a junior minister was instructed to do so instead. It has since emerged that no call from the UK government took place before the Afghan government collapsed. Which of the following statements is closest to your view? Dominic Raab should resign / should not resign.  

Representative poll of 2083 GB adults. Prepared by Savanta: ComRes ~ Fieldwork Conducted 20th – 22nd Aug 2021

Josiah Mortimer is co-editor of Left Foot Forward.

Comments are closed.