London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jan 21, 2026

Boris Johnson: UK will continue with final stages of Kabul airlift

Prime minister says ‘we’re going to keep going until the last moment’, despite deadly attack on airport
UK forces will continue with the final stages of an evacuation programme from Kabul despite a deadly suicide bombing and gun attack outside the city’s airport, Boris Johnson has said.

But while the prime minister said the UK had extracted the “overwhelming majority” of UK nationals or Afghans eligible to be removed, a series of MPs warned they knew of large numbers who faced being stranded.

Several MPs said that of hundreds of constituents’ family members seeking to leave, many of them UK passport holders, almost none had made it, and that relatives in the UK were being advised to email advice services that never replied.

Johnson chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee after two powerful suicide bombs and a gunman struck one of the main entrances to the Afghan capital’s international airport.

“We’re going to keep going up until the last moment,” the prime minister said. “The conclusion is that we’re able to continue with the programme in the way that we’ve been running it, according to the timetable that we’ve got.”

He added: “We’re now coming towards the very end of it in any event, and we’ve already extracted the overwhelming majority of those under both the schemes – the eligible persons, UK nationals, the Afghan interpreters and others. And it’s been totally phenomenal effort by the UK. There’s been nothing like it for decades and decades.”

Johnson said that while some people eligible to reach the UK would not be reached before the airlift ended, the UK would pressure the Taliban to let them out – something Afghanistan’s new rulers have said they will not do.

Government figures released on Thursday night said that more than 13,140 people had been evacuated by the UK military since the mission began on 13 August. This included embassy staff, British nationals, those eligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) programme and some nationals from partner nations.

However, a number of MPs told the Guardian they knew of large numbers of people still in Afghanistan who were eligible to leave for the UK who now had no idea how this would happen.

The Labour MP Lyn Brown, who represents West Ham in east London, said she was “infuriated” with the response she received from the government, calling it “a complete dereliction of duty”.

Over the course of the crisis her office has taken up cases on behalf of 82 people living in her constituency. But most of them have been asking for help on behalf of multiple family members, and so her office has been trying to help 356 individuals reach Britain.

One of the most harrowing cases involved a British girl of school age needing a passport to leave. Brown’s office first raised this with the Home Office early last week, but it took days to get a response and the girl was only told to go to the Baron hotel – where people have been processed ahead of evacuation by the British – as the airlift mission was coming close to the end.

On Thursday afternoon Brown and her staff were told the girl had been on a bus cleared to head for the airport – but that she and others without a passport had then been ordered off by a solider, and left stranded.

Harriet Harman, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham in south London, said that of 228 family members of 34 constituents, including UK nationals, joint UK-Afghan nationals, and relatives of UK nationals, none had managed to leave since the Taliban took over.

While ministers have been briefing MPs, Harman said, it appeared impossible to get news on how people could leave.

“They keep saying, ‘Here’s an email address to get updates,’” she said. “But we have had no feedback aside from the changing kaleidoscope of general advice. We’ve had no feedback on our individual cases. None of us have.

“Really it would be better for the ministers to just say, ‘Sorry, we can’t give you any updates, because we haven’t got the capacity.’ Obviously, there’s a sense of mounting desperation.”

Alison Thewliss, the Scottish National party MP for Glasgow Central, said up to 50 constituents were similarly seeking news. “We’ve had one family who had to move from house to house to house, and then to the airport to wait. That’s women on their own, with five children, one of them eight months pregnant.

“We’re providing the information that we have, but it’s not really specific enough to help people. It’s really difficult. It’s been difficult for my entire team. We don’t have any answers to give folk. And we’re really, really conscious that we’re running out of time.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Starmer Steps Back from Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Amid Strained US–UK Relations
Prince Harry’s Lawyer Tells UK Court Daily Mail Was Complicit in Unlawful Privacy Invasions
UK Government Approves China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London Amid Debate Over Security and Diplomacy
Trump Cites UK’s Chagos Islands Sovereignty Shift as Justification for Pursuing Greenland Acquisition
UK Government Weighs Australia-Style Social Media Ban for Under-Sixteens Amid Rising Concern Over Online Harm
Trump Aides Say U.S. Has Discussed Offering Asylum to British Jews Amid Growing Antisemitism Concerns
UK Seeks Diplomatic De-escalation with Trump Over Greenland Tariff Threat
Prince Harry Returns to London as High Court Trial Begins Over Alleged Illegal Tabloid Snooping
High-Speed Train Collision in Southern Spain Kills at Least Twenty-One and Injures Scores
Meghan Markle May Return to the U.K. This Summer as Security Review Advances
Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat Sparks EU Response and Risks Deep Transatlantic Rift
Prince Harry’s High Court Battle With Daily Mail Publisher Begins in London
Trump’s Tariff Escalation Presents Complex Challenges for the UK Economy
UK Prime Minister Starmer Rebukes Trump’s Greenland Tariff Strategy as Transatlantic Tensions Rise
Prince Harry’s Last Press Case in UK Court Signals Potential Turning Point in Media and Royal Relations
OpenAI to Begin Advertising in ChatGPT in Strategic Shift to New Revenue Model
GDP Growth Remains the Most Telling Barometer of Britain’s Economic Health
Prince William and Kate Middleton Stay Away as Prince Harry Visits London Amid Lingering Rift
Britain Braces for Colder Weather and Snow Risk as Temperatures Set to Plunge
Mass Protests Erupt as UK Nears Decision on China’s ‘Mega Embassy’ in London
Prince Harry to Return to UK to Testify in High-Profile Media Trial Against Associated Newspapers
Keir Starmer Rejects Trump’s Greenland Tariff Threat as ‘Completely Wrong’
Trump to hit Europe with 10% tariffs until Greenland deal is agreed
Prince Harry Returns to UK High Court as Final Privacy Trial Against Daily Mail Publisher Begins
Britain Confronts a Billion-Pound Wind Energy Paradox Amid Grid Constraints
The graduate 'jobpocalypse': Entry-level jobs are not shrinking. They are disappearing.
Cybercrime, Inc.: When Crime Becomes an Economy. How the World Accidentally Built a Twenty-Trillion-Dollar Criminal Economy
The Return of the Hands: Why the AI Age Is Rewriting the Meaning of “Real Work”
UK PM Kier Scammer Ridicules Tories With "Kamasutra"
Strategic Restraint, Credible Force, and the Discipline of Power
United Kingdom and Norway Endorse NATO’s ‘Arctic Sentry’ Mission Including Greenland
Woman Claiming to Be Freddie Mercury’s Secret Daughter Dies at Forty-Eight After Rare Cancer Battle
UK Launches First-Ever ‘Town of Culture’ Competition to Celebrate Local Stories and Boost Communities
Planned Sale of Shell and Exxon’s UK Gas Assets to Viaro Energy Collapses Amid Regulatory and Market Hurdles
UK Intensifies Arctic Security Engagement as Trump’s Greenland Rhetoric Fuels Allied Concern
Meghan Markle Could Return to the UK for the First Time in Nearly Four Years If Security Is Secured
Meghan Markle Likely to Return to UK Only if Harry Secures Official Security Cover
UAE Restricts Funding for Emiratis to Study in UK Amid Fears Over Muslim Brotherhood Influence
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks to Safeguard Long-Term Agreement Stability
Starmer’s Push to Rally Support for Action Against Elon Musk’s X Faces Setback as Canada Shuns Ban
UK Free School Meals Expansion Faces Political and Budgetary Delays
EU Seeks ‘Farage Clause’ in Brexit Reset Talks With Britain
Germany Hit by Major Airport Strikes Disrupting European Travel
Prince Harry Seeks King Charles’ Support to Open Invictus Games on UK Return
Washington Holds Back as Britain and France Signal Willingness to Deploy Troops in Postwar Ukraine
Elon Musk Accuses UK Government of Suppressing Free Speech as X Faces Potential Ban Over AI-Generated Content
Russia Deploys Hypersonic Missile in Strike on Ukraine
OpenAI and SoftBank Commit One Billion Dollars to Energy and Data Centre Supplier
UK Prime Minister Starmer Reaffirms Support for Danish Sovereignty Over Greenland Amid U.S. Pressure
UK Support Bolsters U.S. Seizure of Russian-Flagged Tanker Marinera in Atlantic Strike on Sanctions Evasion
×