Dominic Raab has been ridiculed online after he released a Twitter video reeling off what he has done to help the escalating Afghanistan crisis.
The Guardian’s sketch writer John Crace retweeted the footage, and brutally described the two-minute clip as the “please don’t sack me” tweet.
In the video, Raab explained how he had just chaired an emergency meeting with the G7 foreign ministers to coordinate their actions to Afghanistan.
He added: “We’re all absolutely seized by the gravity of the situation.”
He also claimed they were all working together to get former Afghan staff and national UK citizens “out”, while also looking into the resettlement for Afghan refugees.
The public weren’t impressed. Other Twitter accounts agreed with Crace, and one commented: “This is like when a child starts behaving immediately after this parents finally snap.”
The foreign secretary has faced calls to step down from cabinet after it emerged he had ignored advice to phone his Afghan counterparts last Thursday, just three days before the Taliban captured Kabul.
This conversation could have helped evacuate Afghan interpreters, but, according to the government, Raab was busy on other calls at the time.
There have since been reports Raab was seen relaxing on a beach in Crete on Sunday instead.
Raab reportedly delegated this phone call to a more junior minister, whom the Afghan foreign minister allegedly refused to talk to. This meant the fundamental conversation was pushed back to the next day.
The Foreign Office has since confirmed this phone call did not take place at all.
A spokesperson told the BBC: “Given the rapidly changing situation it was not possible to arrange a call before the Afghan government collapsed.”
Defence secretary Ben Wallace also defended Raab on the BBC, and claimed that one phone call would not have made “a blind bit of difference”.
He said: “Last Friday, the Afghan government was melting away quicker than ice and a phone call to an Afghan minister at that moment in time would not made a difference.”
Wallace said the priority was making sure Kabul Airport remained functioning instead.
When asked by reporters if he planned on resigning this week, Raab replied: “No.”
Raab’s actions only add to the growing scrutiny the government is facing over its mishandling and delayed response to the Taliban’s swift Afghanistan takeover.
Other Conservatives have also come out to defend Raab to a less than warm response:
