Boris Johnson faces fiery grilling from MPs in packed Commons Afghanistan debate

BORIS Johnson faced a fiery grilling about the Afghanistan crisis in a rammed Commons chamber this morning.

The PM was bombarded with uncomfortable questions on the military withdrawal, engagement with the Taliban, evacuation plans and refugees.

Tory big-hitters including Theresa May and veteran Tobias Ellwood turned the screw on their leader who was forced to fend off a swell of criticism.

He dismissed calls to hold an inquiry into the war in Afghanistan, claiming “most of the key questions have already been extensively gone into”.

But he paid tribute to soldiers who have fought over the past 20 years and said their efforts were not in vain.

The PM said: “The sacrifice in Afghanistan is seared into our national consciousness, with 150,000 people serving from across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.”

In key developments:

• The PM said events in Afghanistan have “unfolded” faster “than even the Taliban predicted”
• He declared the 20-year war in Afghanistan “a success”
• Mr Johnson said the Taliban was allowing British evacuations to happen
• He formally announced a plan to house 20,000 Afghan refugees

Opening the debate Mr Johnson told MPs: “It’s almost 20 years since the US suffered the most catastrophic attack on its people since the Second World War, in which 67 British citizens also lost their lives at the hands of murderous terrorist groups incubated in Afghanistan.

“In response, Nato invoked Article 5 of its treaty for the first and only time in its history and the UK, amongst others, joined America in going into Afghanistan on a mission to extirpate al Qaeda in that country and to do whatever we could to stabilise Afghanistan, in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face and we succeeded in that core mission.”