Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs to discuss legacy of Afghan conflict this week

Yesterday the final UK personnel left Kandahar airfield, with just a few hundred British defence workers left in Afghanistan to help train the country’s future officers. MPs have been assured that the country won’t end up the same way as Iraq, with the RAF returning to the skies above the country to combat Isis, but few of them are fully confident that these assurances will bear up. Defence Select Committee reports have cast further doubts on that and MPs have been pressing for a while to have a debate on the end of the conflict in the country.

Yesterday Tory Julian Lewis received a nod from Defence Secretary Michael Fallon when he asked at Commons questions whether there would be a debate on this matter. Now I understand that a statement on Afghanistan is expected this Thursday. Some want to go much further and have a formal review of the lessons learned from the conflict, but the time for questions after the statement on Thursday will at least give them a first opportunity to discuss these lessons and the potential for a review.

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