Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey Speaks to Charlotte Ivers on Afghanistan

Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey has told Times Radio he doesn't agree with Tony Blair's claim that President Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was based on "obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending the 'forever wars'".

When asked if he agreed with the former Prime Minister's assessment he told Charlotte Ivers:

No. The US is our most important, most reliable ally. But Tony Blair does raise some vital questions about the urgency of the evacuation, the need to avoid a hard US deadline in the way that the overall withdrawal was done and the need for steps to put maximum pressure on the Taliban regime for the future. And we've got to make up for the lost months of ministerial inaction in Britain. We've got to pursue every option to help save the Afghans who are now in danger and constrain the Taliban actions as they take over the country.

But he says the UK does need to rethink its relationship with the US:

Britain's been too ready to take US orders. We must insist on our say. Post-Brexit now we must rebuild our defence and security relations with other European allies. And I think we've got to rethink the government's defence plan for fewer planes, fewer ships and 10-thousand fewer troops over the next three years.

On whether the UK is now more at risk from terrorism as a result of the situation in Afghanistan he said:

We could well be. The way that the Taliban have swept through the country, it was clearly based on a misjudgment of intelligence or misjudgment of their strength. We know that al Qaeda, we know that IS fighters are again in Afghanistan...We've got to safeguard that. There's a big risk, particularly with the Taliban in charge again, that they could support, they could encourage and they won't stop as they promised to do these sort of terrorist groups threatening us again.

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