Let’s not forget the other damning report on Boris Johnson's performance

And before anyone thinks I’m referring to the publishing of Sue Gray’s partygate report yesterday, let’s just remind ourselves that the findings of another damning investigation into government incompetence, obfuscation, buck passing, and downright dishonesty was also published earlier this week.

Rarely will you read a parliamentary report so scathing about government failures and what they mean for the UK’s reputation in the world. Rarely too has such a report had a more appropriate title – Missing in Action.x

I’m talking about the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report into the UK’s exit from Afghanistan which lays bare what is fast becoming more obvious by the day – the UK Government is not fit for purpose.

For the congenital liar that is Boris Johnson, last August’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was presented to the British public as nothing short of a sign that “Global Britain” was at the top of its game.

As Johnson saw it this was “one of the outstanding military achievements of the last 50 years”. While far from wishing to take anything away from the remarkable courage and resourcefulness shown by those troops on the ground helping with the evacuation, this was anything but.

On the contrary, it’s difficult to know where to begin in listing the litany of disastrous failures this whole sorry affair encompassed as outlined by a cross party committee that not only has a Tory majority but also a Tory chairman, Tom Tugendhat. He was not for pulling any punches when summing up the committee’s assessment.

“The UK’s part in this tragedy exposes a lack of seriousness in achieving co-ordination, a lack of clear decision-making, a lack of leadership and a lack of accountability,” the Tory MP deplored.

As has become the leitmotif of Johnson’s government, the investigation concluded that important policy decisions were made through informal, unaccountable means. Johnson also played a greater role in some decisions than has been admitted, senior officials confirmed.

Among the more calamitous of these decisions was the UK’s failure to respond to the United States’ decision to withdraw its troops, made in February 2020 and underestimating the speed of the Taliban takeover.

In other words, despite knowing for 18 months that an evacuation might be necessary, the Tory government “failed adequately to shape or respond to Washington’s decision to withdraw… and prepare for the evacuation of our Afghan partners”.

Then there was that whole fiasco which Johnson dismissed at the time as “total rhubarb” when asked if he ordered the evacuation of more than 160 dogs and cats cared for by a charity run by the former Royal Marine, Pen Farthing.

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While the committee’s investigation was still not able to verify who exactly authorised it, their conclusion was that the evacuation of the animals on a 230-seat private aircraft “absorbed significant government resources in the midst of the biggest military airlift in decades”.

That a decision was made at all by whoever signed off such a farcical order was remarkable in itself given that up until then both foreign secretary Dominic Raab and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton, were away sunning themselves on holiday.

How staggering it is that Barton, the FCDO’s top civil servant, didn’t even return until the civilian evacuation was over, while staff across the department struggled to implement a poorly planned evacuation process under intense pressure. That on its own, as the committee concluded, “is difficult to understand and impossible to excuse”.

Even knowing the reputation of Johnson’s government to date, I likewise still found it hard to process and comprehend the level of incompetence the full report detailed when I read it yesterday.

That the FCDO, except for some committed and courageous junior officers, comes out of this shabbily goes without saying. It goes without saying too that Barton should resign over his – literal – absence of leadership.

If any credit is due it must go to those two whistleblowers who worked in the department and resigned their posts to give scathing written evidence about the handling of the evacuation.

But putting aside for a moment the FCDO and calls for Barton to go, what’s clearer than ever is that responsibility for this whole mess sits with ministers and those in the top tier of the UK Government, including Johnson himself. These are the people meant to be driving policy and almost to a person they were found wanting at a time of major crisis.

All this too before factoring in the long-term harm it has done to UK foreign policy.

How many of the UK’s allies can seriously trust it again after a betrayal such as Johnson and his cronies meted out to the Afghans left behind?

Every day since that moment last August, Taliban restrictions on the lives of Afghans have grown, as has the hunger that now grips 20 million people in the country.

Sure, none of the fallen Afghan government’s allies came out of this calamity well. But for Britain, humiliation was compounded by a leader who, as the report underscores, was woefully unequal to the task and seriousness of the moment.

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There are other potential foreign policy implications too worth pondering. Who’s to say for example that after witnessing the UK’s chaotic leadership during this crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin might have recognised a certain vulnerability and become even more emboldened over his decision to invade Ukraine?

No doubt in the coming days the focus now will be on the partygate report. That’s understandable given that it’s abundantly clear the Prime Minister and the Tories effectively gave two fingers to the British public over lockdown restrictions. For that they should face the full weight of the law and wrath of the country’s citizens. But it would be remiss of us to overlook that other jaw dropping example of incompetency and leadership failure that the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has brought starkly out into the open.

There is a clear pattern here, one which has Boris Johnson and his cabal “Missing in Action” home and away whenever good governance and decision making is needed most. They are not fit for purpose and the time has come for both politicians and the public to make that clear in no uncertain terms.