tom tugendhat, welcome to political thinking. thank you, nick. nice to see you.you had much sleep since those events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've got one of these trackers on my phone and i've noticed that my sleep has sort of gone from an average of seven, seven and a half hours, to something like three or four hours on average for the last three weeks. and it feels a bit like being back on operations, actually. there is a network of retired officers and soldiers trying to help those we know who are in such desperate need and so it's been pretty full on. full on because you must be getting texts and e—mails and messages saying, "get me out, help." yes. i got a phone call at two o'clock in the morning this morning from a group of individuals who are stuck on a border and these are not people i know, but somehow they got my number. and they said, "get me out, open the border." i said, "i can't, i can't order the border guards to do that. i don't have that authority. i can't order the embassy, the high commission to give them papers." the home office has a say, th

tom tugendhat, welcome to politicalthinking. _ hurting., welcome to politicalthinking. thank- to politicalthinking. thank ou. to politicalthinking. thank yom nice _ to politicalthinking. thank you. nice to _ to politicalthinking. thank you. nice to see _ to politicalthinking. thank you. nice to see you. - to politicalthinking. thank you. nice to see you. havei to politicalthinking. thank- you. nice to see you. have you had much — you. nice to see you. have you had much sleep _ you. nice to see you. have you had much sleep since - you. nice to see you. have you had much sleep since those - had much sleep since those events in kabul?— had much sleep since those events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've not events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've got one — events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've got one of _ events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've got one of these _ events in kabul? no, i haven't. i've got one of these trackers l i've got one of these trackers on my phone and i've noticed that my sleep has sort of gone to an average of seven, seven and a h

yes, and one of the . people asking the questions will be tom tugendhat, the tory mp who chairs the foreign affairs select committee, even on a good day is quite critical of the government that he is a member of the political party for that government, he is also a former veteran who served in afghanistan and he gave that a very powerful speech when parliament was recalled to the week before last which went viral, around the entire world. kind of capturing some of the emotion around the us withdrawal from afghanistan. he will be in the chairfor from afghanistan. he will be in the chair for that from afghanistan. he will be in the chairfor that session, and from afghanistan. he will be in the chair for that session, and they will be quite a lot of outspoken mps on that committee who got quite strong opinions and quite a lot of experience of foreign affairs. the labour party have put a whole list of questions in ten different areas they want dominic raab to answer, whether it is about the previous mission in afghanistan, about his own personal contact, whether he went on holiday at the right

mr raab was first questioned by the conservative chair of the committee, mp tom tugendhat, who foughtn. really, the prime minister is responsible for the joint intelligence committee and the assessment it makes. is that where the responsibility lies, with the prime minister? well, actually, you'll recall that after the chilcot inquiry in the second iraq war, thele was there to give an independent assessment of intelligence precisely to avoid politicised... politicisation. but, ultimately you have thele giving its assessment, and you then have the military and the diplomatic assessment that's layered on top of that. there was a collective assessment through the jic? it was a collective assessment through the jic that you were referring to? it wasn't a particularly military assessment, is that correct? well, thele is there to provide the information, if you like, the raw intelligence that's distilled down, and then that is backed up by the military assessment, for example, on things like intent although, frankly, it's a cross—cutting issue. my point is this. the central assessment that

so he may well face on personal questions as well and obviously the line—up chaired by tom tugendhat handling of the uk government has of the vices over the last few well as a number of cross—party backbench mps were likely to come out with a number of questions and all these topics. hagar questions and all these topics. how much of what _ questions and all these topics. how much of what has _ questions and all these topics. how much of what has happened in afghanistan can the foreign secretary, though, deflect by saying, look, we were given no choice, the united states are pulling out, we had to be the same. certainly a thread that has been running two ministerial interviews over the last couple of weeks as this point, as you say, that with the us deciding that their deadline was the 31st of august they had no choice but to stay on. that's certainly something which the defence secretary ben wallace is raising a number of interviews as well saying that while they had conversations with other nato allies and other international partners about potentially looking at staying on it wasn'

quite a spicy encounter, i think, because the foreign affairs select committee is chaired by tom tugendhatin the region as the crisis was building? how could you have a situation where some afghan staff would work for the british army's details were left in the british embassy staff are leaving? and also what is going to happen next? a whole load of questions for the foreign secretary to be asked. we will speak to lisa nandy on the programme shortly.— will speak to lisa nandy on the programme shortly. will speak to lisa nandy on the rouramme shortl . j 1 1 «i [1 president biden has defended his decision to withdraw us troops from afghanistan, calling the evaucation effort an extraordinary success. in his first speech since the end of the 20—year war in the country, mr biden insisted the united states had achieved everything it set out to do. but his approach has faced criticism, as our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the spoils of war. american military hardware in the hands of the taliban. hangars full of us helicopters, decommissioned and dismantled so the enemy can't us

yes, and one of the people asking the questions will be tom tugendhat, the tory mp who chairs the foreignven on the good day is quite critical of the government but he's ——that he's a member of the political party of. he's also a former veteran who served in afghanistan and he gave that very powerful speech when parliament was recalled the week before last which went viral round the entire world, really capturing some of the emotion around the us withdrawal from afghanistan. so, he will be in the chair for that session and there is quite a lot of quite outspoken mps on that committee, who've got quite strong opinions and quite a lot of experience of foreign affairs and the labour party have put out a whole list of questions in ten different areas that they want dominic raab to answer, whether it's about the previous mission in afghanistan, whether it's about his own personal conduct and whether he went on holiday at the right time and stayed on holiday for too long and labour's shadow foreign secretary, lisa nandy, did not hold back. the soldiers that flew into danger, the diplomats that

a member of parliament in the united kingdom, on the floor of the house of commons tom tugendhat, basicallyalled the withdrawal shameful and said that the uk, our greatest ally, should we consider how dependent they are on the united states. yet you sit here today and tell us that nato was completely fine with everything. you well coordinated everything with nato, it was all good, that's what you communicated to me, at least here today. and a member of parliament is saying that it was a shameful withdrawal on the floor of the house of commons. our greatest ally. the headline of the economist, a few weeks ago. i don't know if you sought, but it said biden's debacle. i'm not sure that nato would agree with you that they were all on in on this together. i will say this, it is against the law, the united states law, to give material aid to a terrorist organization. and you said earlier, when i asked you before, that if the taliban was a terrorist organization and you said yes. 85 billion dollars? i would consider that material aid to a terrorist organization, mister secretary. and yet here we a

the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, tom tugendhat, branded the statistic which suggested as early as the 22nd ofjuly that kabul could fall and the risks that could be attached to that. the foreign office saying that was an internal planning document for officials and is quite separate from the overall intelligence assessment for the government generally which suggested that kabul wouldn't fall for several months yet. that kabul wouldn't fall for several months yet-— that kabul wouldn't fall for several months et. �* ., ., , . a hundred organisations have signed an open letter to the prime minister, urging him to scrap the planned cut to universal credit. an extra £20 a week was added to the benefit at the start of the pandemic as a temporary measure. it's now being phased out from the end of this month. here's our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan. fresh fruit and veg might not seem a luxury, but for ron graham, too often they were a cost he couldn't afford. a failed business venture in 2016 left the 63—year—old relying on universal credit. until his benefit w