Ministers in ‘intensive’ Afghanistan brainstorm session
By politics.co.uk staff
The national security council has discussed the situation in Afghanistan at a meeting at Chequers.
Britain’s strategy in the unstable country is unlikely to shift as a result of the conference, which was attended by senior military staff as well as ministers including deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, foreign secretary William Hague and chancellor George Osborne.
Its purpose was to “take stock”, a No 10 spokesperson said. But concerns among some Conservative MPs that the mission to defeat the Taliban is drifting towards failure were probably addressed.
The Times newspaper reported that Tory MPs Adam Holloway, who has served in Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan, and ex-British Army officer Rory Stewart would also be present.
“There were wide-ranging, intensive and productive discussions during the extended session on this, the government’s top foreign policy priority,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The prime minister and the NSC expressed their great admiration and support for our troops serving in Afghanistan and paid tribute to the essential contribution that they and their civilian colleagues make.”
Mr Cameron spoke to Afghan president Hamid Karzai this afternoon, to discuss plans for the Afghan peace jirga which begins tomorrow.
The meeting came after ex-Europe minister Denis MacShane called for a withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.
He suggested Barack Obama was seeking an “exit strategy” and added, in an article for the Observer: “Britain also needs to begin prime ministers’ questions without a roll-call of the dead and maimed. We have done our duty. It is time to come home.”
