James Cleverly tried to defend the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on Wednesday’s BBC Question Time – to a rather disastrous end.
Cleverly, the Middle East and North Africa minister, struggled to field questions from the audience about the west’s decision to pull the military out of Afghanistan so quickly, as this created a power vacuum which the Taliban have since swept into.
One audience member asked Cleverly directly why the exit strategy failed for pulling troops out of Afghanistan.
He replied by explaining a scheme, in place since April, which allows Afghan interpreters and those who helped the UK to leave Afghanistan.
He said: “We have resettled over 3,300 people through that scheme – and their families.”
The audience member then cut him off and accused him of not answering the question, dismissing his response as “rhetoric”.
James Cleverly gets put well & truly in his place by an audience member tonight.
Talk as much shit as you want James but the truth is indefensible, you lot have failed Afghanistan#bbcqt#BBCQuestionTime#JohnsonMustGopic.twitter.com/pmrX9pmx7J
— kerry? (@hewitson10) August 18, 2021
Cleverly maintained that the exit strategy did work, the timetable was just set by decisions from the US government.
The audience member said: “Carry on talking – just how materially effective has it become? Because it was effective, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today, would we?
“How dare you.”
Her furious reply to the minister was well-received on Twitter. One account retweeted the clip of the audience member, and said: “James Cleverly gets put well [and] truly in his place by an audience member tonight.
“Talk as much s*** as you want James but the truth is indefensible, you lot have failed Afghanistan.”
Another tweeted: “Good to see @JamesCleverly getting pulled apart from the audience last night on #bbcqt. Another one that always been completely out of his depth.”
Femi Oluwole, well-known pro-EU commentator, also picked apart on another quote from Cleverly’s appearance on the show.
He tweeted: “Government minister James Cleverly just told British military veterans to go find a charity to help them if they’re suffering mental health problems due to the trauma they experienced in Afghanistan.
“Are you f*cking kidding me @JamesCleverly?!”
However, Cleverly did address these concerns on Twitter on Thursday, and shared links to the NHS’ Op COURAGE service which supports veterans and the similar charity combatstress.org.uk, while encouraging former military personnel to reach other to “former colleagues” for help.
But this response did not go down well either – many said such services for veterans should be provided by the government instead.
