A BRADFORD MP has slammed the government over the handling of the evacuation of Afghanistan, branding it ‘shambolic and unforgivable’.

Bradford East’s Imran Hussain tweeted he felt angry today, as the final UK troops and diplomatic staff were airlifted from Kabul yesterday, drawing to a close Britain's 20-year engagement in Afghanistan and a two-week operation to rescue UK nationals and Afghan allies.

Mr Hussain tweeted: “Having dealt with countless cases of people trapped in #Afghanistan, words simply can't do justice to the sheer anger I'm feeling this morning, which will doubtless be shared by many others, at the Government's negligent, shambolic and unforgiveable handling of this situation.”

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK departure from Afghanistan was "the culmination of a mission unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes".

Ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow, who had been processing those fleeing the country at the airport until the last moment, was among those who landed at RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire this morning.

And it brought to a close Operation Pitting, believed to be the largest evacuation mission since the Second World War.

In a video uploaded to Twitter on Sunday morning, Mr Johnson praised the more than 1,000 military personnel, diplomats and officials who took part in the operation in Afghanistan.

He said: "UK troops and officials have worked around the clock to a remorseless deadline in harrowing conditions.

"They have expended all the patience and care and thought they possess to help people in fear for their lives.

"They've seen at first-hand barbaric terrorist attacks on the queues of people they were trying to comfort, as well as on our American friends.

"They didn't flinch. They kept calm. They got on with the job.

"It's thanks to their colossal exertions that this country has now processed, checked, vetted and airlifted more than 15,000 people to safety in less than two weeks."

 

The Government said of the 15,000 people evacuated since the Taliban seized Kabul, 5,000 of those were British nationals and their families.

More than 8,000 Afghans who helped the British effort as interpreters or in other roles, or who are otherwise vulnerable to persecution by the regime, were also able to flee to safety with their families.

But Conservative MP and veteran Tobias Ellwood said the UK had "very little to show" for 20 years in Afghanistan.

Mr Hussain tweeted last week that a Bradford’s wife and "very young" children were kicked out of Kabul Airport, just moments before boarding an evacuation flight.

He said that a constituent's wife and their two "very young" children were just about to get on an evacuation flight from Kabul, in Afghanistan.

But they were suddenly stopped and handed over to US army personnel, according to the Bradford MP.