Boris Johnson says it is ‘complete nonsense’ to claim he ordered evacuation of dogs from Kabul – UK politics live

Good morning. It is a difficult day for Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, because a former official has given the Commons foreign affairs committee a shocking account of how the Foreign Office handled the evacuation of Afghanistan when Raab was foreign secretary. My colleague Patrick Wintour has the story here.

And my colleague Aubrey Allegretti has summarises the whistleblower’s main accusations here.

Commenting on the evidence, set out in this 40-page memo (pdf), Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs committee, said:

These allegations are serious and go to the heart of the failures of leadership around the Afghan disaster, which we have seen throughout this inquiry. These failures betrayed our friends and allies and squandered decades of British and Nato effort. The evidence we’ve heard alleges dysfunction within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and substantial failings throughout the Afghanistan evacuation effort.

Raab has been giving interviews this morning, and he has rejected some – but by no means all – of the claims made in the memo. Asked on the Today programme if the description of the Foreign Office as dysfunctional and chaotic under his leadership was unfair and untrue, Raab replied: “What I would say is it’s inaccurate in certain respects.”

He also told Sky News that he did not think the problems with the handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan led to his being demoted in the subsequent reshuffle.

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day

9.30am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

10am: Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee about her fan-led review of football governance.

11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.

After 12.45pm: MPs resume their debate on the nationality and borders bill.

2.20pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about Covid.

3pm: Sir Philip Barton, head of the Foreign Office, and other senior diplomats give evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee about Afghanistan.

3.30pm: Alok Sharma, president of Cop26, gives evidence to the environmental audit committee.

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