Image source, HoL

Down the corridor in the House of Lords, peers are also debating the situation in Afghanistan. They are still able to contribute by video link, so the chamber is not quite as full as the Commons.

One former head of the judiciary in England and Wales says the UK must not abandon women judges in Afghanistan.

Lord Judge, a former Lord Chief Justice, says there are just under 300 female judges and magistrates in Afghanistan who are now in peril.

He tells peers: "Each one of them had the temerity, from the point of view of the Taliban the sinful effrontery, to sit in open public courts, contrary to sharia law, to sit in judgement over men, to give judgements against men, to pass sentence on men and to imprison Taliban terrorists and murderers and rapists.

"All those men are now free and they will dress up their revenge as a debt they owe to their God.

"We must not desert these women, we must not desert these allies who we have left behind," he says.

The peers have also heard from the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby, who praises the courage and sacrifice of people who have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

"I remember a cathedral full for the funeral of a soldier, family and many colleagues silent in dignity, some wounded, mourning their loss," he recalls.

"The failure we face today is not military or diplomatic, they did all they could. It is political."

Image source, HoC

Tory MP Julian Lewis has been speaking. He is the chair of the intelligence and security committee.

For 20 years, Nato operations in Afghanistan have prevented further Al-Qaeda attacks on the West being launched under Taliban protection, he says.

"Unless we choose a better future strategy, the threat of its reversal is all too real," he says.

He warns that international terrorists may now again find sanctuary on Afghan soil - and other Islamist states may also decide to follow suit.

Lewis asks how we need to deal with the situation - and suggests that "containment" is the way to go.

Containment is a type of foreign policy strategy designed to stop something spreading. Lewis explains that it held the Soviet Union in check throughout the Cold War until its empire collapsed.

"Islamist extremism has a subversive reach similar to that of revolutionary communism," he says.

"Our task is to keep them at bay until they collapse completely or evolve into tolerant or at least tolerable alternative doctrines."

He suggests rather than deploying forces in Afghanistan constantly, one option is for the West to return and hit the Taliban hard whenever there's evidence that international terrorist groups are on Afghan soil. "That cycle would be repeated until the threat is removed," he says.

An Afghan businesswoman and activist who was among the evacuees on a British military plane out of Kabul has spoken of how it felt to make it on-board.

"Everybody got very emotional, most of us began to cry a lot," Hassina Syed told Newsnight's Kirsty Wark.

Syed turned up at the airport with her Afghan passport and British driving licence. Her husband and children are in the UK.

She told the BBC Two programme women in Afghanistan are worried and want to get out, although she has observed a bit of change in the Taliban, which makes her "a little bit hopeful".

MPs from differing sides of the debate have been reflecting on the "wholly preventable tragedy" in Afghanistan.

Those words come from Conservative Alicia Kearns, who goes on to say the UK was let down by Nato allies when it called for others to step up as the US withdraw. Only Turkey was willing, she says.

She says the changing US attitude to intervention has "rattled me to the core". "We must take greater responsibility for our defence around the world," Kearns says. "We must convince our Nato allies we can stand together without the Americans."

Labour's Diane Abbott refers to her own vote against intervention in Afghanistan 20 years ago and says "it was foreseeable that it would end like this, but it is not inevitable that this house will not do the right thing" for refugees, Afghan women and girls.

"We gave these women and girls hope of a better future. We cannot just sit back and have them see that hope snatched away," she says.

Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Sir Jeffrey Donaldson highlights the number of people from Northern Ireland who served in Afghanistan and says that despite the "political failure" their sacrifice was not in vain.

He says the UK must "step up and do what is necessary" to protect Afghans who assisted us and support religious minorities, such as Christians at risk of persecution.

And he calls for more support for intelligence services to ensure that Afghanistan cannot become a base for planning terror attacks again.

Image source, HoC

Labour's Dan Jarvis, another MP who served in Afghanistan, says that military personnel are questioning whether their sacrifices were "really worth it" and again grieving for fallen comrades.

He says that Afghan soldiers he fought alongside "were our brothers in arms".

"I shudder to think where those men are now. Many will be dead, others I know have considered themselves to be dead men walking.

"Where were we in their hour of need? We were nowhere and that is shameful and it will have a very long-lasting impact on our reputation around the world."

He says the UK has to think about what its next move should be and says that "the character of the country is defined by moments like this".

Jarvis adds that "while it is a bitter pill to swallow" we must engage with the new regime to ensure safe passage for those wanting to leave.

Earlier Priti Patel spoke to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, giving more details about plans to resettle up to 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK.

The home secretary told the programme she wants the majority of those helped by the scheme to be women and girls and other persecuted minorities.

The Taliban have promised the rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected "within the framework of Islamic law".

But Patel says the group has a history of oppressing women and "that's not going to change overnight".

"I genuinely do not think that we should be at all believing the spokespeople or the PR operation that we're currently seeing," she adds.

Image source, Parliamentlive.tv

Tory MP Johnny Mercer also has a message for Army personnel and veterans who served in Afghanistan.

Mercer says soldiers will be experiencing new feelings right now. We are not trained to lose, he says, and "we're not trained for ministers to, in a way, choose to be defeated by the Taliban".

"Was it all for nothing? Of course it wasn't for nothing. We have to get away from this narrative," he says.

Afghans would have experienced a period of freedom - "and no one will ever take that away from them".

Mercer says those who served in Afghanistan "can be forever proud for what you did when the nation called you".

"You played your role, you cannot control what is happening now. Remember that."

Mercer, a former Army captain, resigned as a government defence minister in April over a new law relating to the treatment of veterans who served in Northern Ireland.

Mercer says Boris Johnson has "consistently failed to honour what he said he would do when he was trying to become prime minister" - and says he needs to listen to veterans, not those around him "who do not believe veterans' issues are worth the political capital required".

Image source, HoC

Johnny Mercer, the Conservative MP who is a former Army captain, has said the government needs to take responsibility.

"When it comes to responsibility, can I just urge ministers to be very careful around talking exclusively about the Americans.

He says people who sign up for the military "do not serve the American flag, they serve the British flag".

"It dishonours their service to simply say: the Americans have left, we are leaving."

"I would urge ministers to take responsibility for the decisions they make."

He says he welcomes the government's plan to accept Afghan refugees, saying it's "a good start" - although the reality is that we won't be able to get everyone out of Afghanistan who we promised to, Mercer adds.

And he also speaks up for the campaigners who he says have for many years campaigned against the UK's relocation schemes for refugees, saying they aren't good enough.

"Ministers in this house have made decisions that have made it difficult for them [refugees] to come," he says. "So whilst I welcome this change today and our onward progression, let's not kid ourselves about what has happened in the past, and let's treat those who are campaigning for these people - who have no self-interest of their own - with a bit more respect than they currently get."

Image source, HoC

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the defence select committee, says he regrets there is no vote today, adding that he does not believe the government could win the support of MPs.

He predicts there will be no peaceful transition in Afghanistan, and the Northern Alliance will form again against the Taliban and a "bloody civil war will unfold".

Ellwood criticises what he calls a "false narrative" about the West's 20 years in Afghanistan, saying they did not give Afghans every opportunity to succeed and instead imposed hurdles and scored own goals.

He describes the idea the US is leaving Afghanistan altogether as a myth, and suggests the CIA, special forces and drone patrols will remain, as the US is haunted by the idea of another 9/11.

But Ellwood says the UK should have more confidence to pursue its own strategy. "We have the means, the hard power, the connections to lead. What we require is the backbone," Ellwood says.

"Yet when our moment comes we are found wanting. We have some serious questions to ask about our place in the world."

Manish Pandey
Newsbeat reporter

Image source, PARWIZ KARIMI

For many British-Afghans in the UK, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan feels much closer to home. The BBC has been speaking to some of them about how they're feeling.

Before coming to the UK as an asylum seeker, 24-year-old Parwiz Karimi was born and grew up in Afghanistan.

"I'm here sitting in my house peacefully studying. And they're struggling to find food," he says.

"There is so much I can do here but at the same time, there's nothing I can do for them."

Parwiz says he has been able to speak to some of his uncles, but has been cut off from family in areas where "network communication is a luxury".

Read more here.

Image source, Parliamentlive.tv

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says for more than seven years, the Afghan army has been doing the bulk of the fighting.

So he says he "couldn't believe it" when he heard US President Joe Biden suggesting that Afghans had been unwilling to fight for their country, saying it showed he had "no awareness".

But turning to the UK's own leader, Davey says the PM and his cabinet "cannot escape their culpability for this disaster".

He says Boris Johnson clearly has a "lack of influence and clout" with the US in Washington, and accuses him of an "inability yet again to master his brief and plan properly for the withdrawal".

"Today's occupant of No 10 has become a national liability," says Davey.

Davey puts two questions to the PM:

• What role did the British government play in the negotiations with the Taliban that led to ex-President Trump's deal with them?
• Did the PM raise concerns about the wisdom of the withdrawal with President Biden - and what impact did that have?

He suggests the PM's foreign policy is "frankly a total disaster".

Image source, Parliamentlive.tv

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is up next in the Commons.

He calls for the UK to work with its partners in Europe and across the world over Afghanistan - and not be "over-dependent on one ally, however important and powerful that ally is".

Davey says the UK has failed to do that in recent years - which is "one of the reasons our nation is weaker today than it has been for far too long".

He says it's been heartbreaking to listen to the families of soldiers who died in Afghanistan who have asked in the past few days: "What was it all for?"

He asks the prime minister: "Will he look our injured veterans and the families of the fallen in the eye and tell them it was worth it, now after his foreign policy catastrophe?"

Davey says the US decision to withdraw troops was an "avoidable mistake" that will impact the lives of millions around the world for years to come.

Commons falls silent for Afghanistan veteran MPpublished at 11:49 British Summer Time 18 August 2021

11:49 BST 18 August 2021

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, HoC

The Commons has fallen almost completely silent as Afghanistan veteran and Tory MP Tom Tugendhat speaks.

He has been among the most critical British politicians in recent days, raising concerns about the speed of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In an emotional speech, he has told MPs the scenes in the last week have reopened old wounds.

But his harshest words were for US President Joe Biden, who this week criticised Afghan troops for not fighting harder as the Taliban advanced.

Tugendhat called the president’s comments “shameful”.

Tom Tugendhat goes on to say "the Cold War was won with patience" and points to Cyprus and South Korea as countries which are at peace "with patience".

"So let's stop talking about forever wars, let's recognise that forever peace is bought not cheaply but hard through determination and a will to endure.

"The tragedy of Afghanistan is that we are swapping that patient achievement for a second fire and a second war, now we need to turn our attention to those who are in desperate need," he says.

There is applause when Tugendhat finishes speaking.

Tom Tugendhat goes on to criticise Joe Biden, saying the US president has called into question the courage of Afghan troops "I fought with".

"To claim that they ran is shameful," he says.

"Those who have never fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have."

He says it is "not armies that win wars - armies can get tactical victories and operational victories that hold the line - they can just about make room for peace for people like us to talk compromise, listen. It's nations that make war - nations endure, mobilise and muster determine and patience".

He says the West has not done that.

"This is a harsh lesson for all of us and if we are not careful this could be a very difficult lesson for our allies," he says.

Image source, HoC

As Tory MP Tom Tugendhat - a veteran who served in Afghanistan - stands, the house falls quiet.

He says like many veterans this past week has seen him struggle "through anger and grief and rage".

Tugendhat talks of "the abandonment of not just a country but the sacrifice that my friends made".

"I have been to funerals from Poole to Dunblane, I have seen good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me and a part of all of us and this week has torn open some of those wounds, left them raw and left us all hurting," he says.

He says it is not just soldiers but aid workers and diplomats "who feel the same".

He says he has spoken to the health secretary who has already made a commitment to do more for veterans' mental health.

Image source, HoC

Harriet Harman, chair of the joint committee on human rights, says the UK must not only help Britons and Afghans who assisted them who are "stranded and in hiding in Kabul".

The long-serving Labour MP says: "We need to think about those who can’t or don’t want to leave - particularly women and girls."

When the Taliban first took power, there were no girls in school and now they make up 40% of pupils, she says. There were "no women to speak up for other women" and now there are 69 female MPs, Harman adds.

She highlights one female Afghan MP who visited the Commons and has stayed behind in solidarity with her people while the president of the country fled. "What courage," Harman says.

"Don’t just listen to the male leaders about what we need to do for women," she concludes. "Pick up the phone to those women Afghan MPs. Ask them what we can do to support and then do it."

Image source, Reuters

Away from the Commons, here's a round-up of the latest reports of what's happening in Afghanistan this morning:

• The Taliban's top political leaders have arrived back in Afghanistan after being in exile
• At Kabul's airport, there is still chaos as European countries struggle to get people into the complex - with reports of shots being fired as evacuees try to approach the airport gates
• However some French, German, Dutch and Czech planes have all taken off in recent hours, carrying citizens and Afghans home
• Late on Tuesday night, a British Royal Air Force plan carrying evacuees landed in the RAF base of Brize Norton in central England
• Signs of life are cautiously resuming in Kabul. One Al-Jazeera journalist said shops and restaurants were slowly re-opening, though few women were on the streets.

While we focus mainly on what's being said in the Commons, if you want to keep more closely across what's happening in Afghanistan you can do so here.

Ian Blackford says the Scottish government stands ready to work with the UK government.

He tells MPs that every local authority in Scotland will have the opportunity to take refugees, after he's asked why only Glasgow was involved in the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

He goes on to call for the four devolved governments to hold a summit with the PM - and gets a nod of agreement from Boris Johnson.

"Afghans are welcome in every part of Scotland," Blackford adds.

More from the SNP's Ian Blackford who says everyone who has worked with UK forces has to be moved to safety.

"No-one can be left behind," he says. "That's our moral and ethical responsibility."

He says he's asking the UK government to make that commitment.

Three million have already been displaced - 80% are women and children, he says.

If we are to support the Afghan people, there needs to be a change to the approach to refugees, he goes on, highlighting government policy and the turning away of migrants travelling across the Channel.