After facing backlash over a tweet which appeared to praise the progress the Taliban rule, Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East and a former soldier, deleted the tweet on Wednesday night after saying, “I got it wrong”.
Reportedly, the Conservative chair of the defence select committee is facing a no confidence vote over the tweet storm.
“However well intentioned, reflections of my personal visit could have been better worded. I am sorry for my poor communication. I stand up, speak my mind, try to see the bigger picture and offer solutions, especially on the international stage, as our world turns a dangerous corner. I don't always get it right,” he tweeted.
Earlier, Ellwood had urged the UK to re-engage with the country and reopen its embassy. He had said security in Afghanistan had “vastly improved” since the Taliban returned to power, and suggested the West encourage the uptake of women’s rights “incrementally”.
He praised the appearance of solar panels in Afghanistan and noted that the country's opium trade had "all but disappeared".
The video posted by Ellwood, which even the Taliban welcomed, came as part of a visit to Afghanistan with the Halo Trust, a de-mining organisation.
However, with criticism pouring in from the UK Prime minister Rishi Sunak and even his colleagues on the defence committee and a number of Conservative MPs, Ellwood clarified that during his visit he also saw a very vulnerable economy that will soon collapse without international intervention and turn this country into a failed state, with terrorist camps no doubt returning and triggering mass migration.
“I also saw the increasing restrictions on women and girls. This suggests our current strategy; of shouting from afar, after abruptly abandoning the country in 2021, is not working. My simple call to action was to see our embassy re-open again and pursue a more direct strategy to help the 40 million people that we abandoned,” he stressed.
In the statement, he also wrote that the loss of his brother in a terrorist bombing in Bali, Indonesia, forced him to visit Afghanistan many times over the past decade and understand his country's efforts to combat terrorism.
