Post Recess - 13th September 2021: A Week in Parliament

Parliament Recall/Afghanistan

Parliament has now returned but I did also attend the August recall to debate Afghanistan. I was lucky enough to be taken in the debate as over 100 MPs were not called. I also intervened on the Prime Minister to ask him to define “doing whatever it takes” with regards identifying Afghans at risk of death and eligible for return to the UK having worked for the UK. Sadly, he could not answer my question.

Afghanistan is a 20 year foreign policy failure. A blind eye was turned to corruption. A blind eye was turned to Pakistan’s intelligence services supporting the Taliban and too many US contractors made large sums of money at the expense of Afghans. This is why so many Afghans think the Taliban can be no worse. However, they are wrong, and many people will lose their lives and freedoms as the regime tightens their grip. We need a public enquiry to get to the bottom of the decisions made over the years, including the merits of ever going in. 457 British service personnel lost their lives; constituents of mine have served in Afghanistan, and many families are now asking “what was the point”?

Government Incompetence

On Afghanistan, yet again, the UK Government was caught wanting. I have no problems with Ministers going on holiday. They can also keep in touch remotely. However, there is no excuse for the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to go on holiday when he did – especially when the armed forces were not allowed leave at this time. The argument he was keeping in touch has also proven to be a sham – it turns out he even refused to make a phone call. I have submitted written questions asking him to detail all the meetings he chaired; the foreign counterparts he spoke to and the number of times he spoke to the UK ambassador in Afghanistan over these vital days. The non- answers I have received confirm he really did down tools. Absolutely disgraceful.

National Insurance Hike

The Tories have decided the English NHS is in crisis – under their watch no less. Their solution to solve it? Raise National Insurance across the entire UK. This is a disgraceful decision and it means in reality everyone in the UK has to pay more tax to save the English NHS. Ah, but, they say Scotland will get its share of money so therefore it is a way of Westminster giving Scotland more money. It is a joke. It is like your parents taking your wage packet off you and then expecting you to be really grateful when they give you it back when it suits them.

Boris has also stated that Scotland will get more money back than the taxes raised as a “union dividend”. I will be asking a number of questions to see how this can be achieved. Ultimately this is a solution that is not fair and will hit hard working families and cost employers money too. A much fairer solution could be found, but yet again, Westminster imposes their solution on us.