:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/TMOTL6HKAIKWEO7KG5O73PPXU4.jpg)
Dominic Raab has said reports of him paddleboarding on holiday while Kabul fell are "nonsense" because he was working and the sea was actually "closed".
The British foreign secretary also said that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would not have gone away on holiday at that time.
Mr Raab has faced strong criticism for not returning from Crete when the situation in Afghanistan began to deteriorate and the Taliban took control of Kabul.
He has said he left to return to the UK on Sunday, August 15th, and that he was “working tirelessly” during the crisis despite being out of the country.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NZFBMXTCVHNAX7TT3RQTU6U4NY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/K5DG74KYEZ2PELOLTKY4HJWHFQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5NGROPZE6E36GVN65W2RJI5DWA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/OQEKCQOF2JIPIWIUY2LEXN5KL4.jpg)
The London Times reported that witnesses said they saw Mr Raab swimming and using a paddleboard on the last day of his holiday.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Mr Raab said: “The stuff about me . . . lounging around on the beach all day is just nonsense. The stuff about me paddleboarding – nonsense. The sea was actually closed, it was a red notice.”
And questioned on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about claims that his department asked him to return home on Friday, August 13th, Mr Raab said: “I was not asked by my officials. I was not directed home.”
He added: “I’m not going to add any more to the speculation in the media. What I can tell you is that from that period I was engaged from a hotel room, my family was on the beach, not me. I checked in on them episodically, but the idea that I was lounging on the beach is just nonsense.
“I was in a hotel room, engaged on Cobra, directing and working with my emergency response team and talking to the director and the director general, engaged with international partners.
“And, as a result of those efforts . . . from exactly the point in time you are talking about, we secured the safe passage back to the UK of 9,000.”
Mr Raab said that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would not have gone away.
He told Sky News: “Of course with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn’t have gone away, but that is a luxury of commentators, not politicians.
“And if you’re the foreign secretary, I’m travelling all the time for work purposes, I always need to be able to grip crises that arise, and that’s what we were doing.”
He added: “With the benefit of hindsight I would have been back earlier, but we were all surprised by the scale and the pace of the collapse of the situation.”
He told the Today programme: “The pace of the Taliban takeover, I think, even caught the Taliban by surprise.”
Calls to resign
The cabinet minister faced calls from opposition parties to resign after it was reported that foreign office officials advised him on August 13th, while he was away, to call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar – two days before the Taliban marched on Kabul – to arrange help for those who had supported British troops.
But Mr Raab delegated the call to a junior minister, Zac Goldsmith, and it later emerged that the call had never been made.
The Liberal Democrats are calling on the foreign secretary to publish any advice he received from either foreign office officials or prime minister Boris Johnson relating to permission to go on the holiday.
The party's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Layla Moran, said: "Captain Hindsight's excuses just won't cut it with the British people.
“Enough is enough. Dominic Raab must come clean. He must publish the exact advice he received which gave him permission to head to the beach whilst the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.”
She added: “The prime minister must show leadership on this and sack Raab, who is clearly not fit to represent Britain.” – PA