The Frome and Somerton MP writes:

August is normally a quieter time in the political year – a time when MPs are spending time in their constituencies and Westminster journalists scrape around for gossip stories for want of more substantial news items to cover. This summer, however, has been anything but quiet, with ongoing coronavirus considerations and the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan.

The ongoing situation in Afghanistan is tragic, and it is clear there has been a terrible miscalculation in the withdrawal of allied forces. The shocking scenes that we've seen coming out of Kabul demonstrate the depth of desperation and fear felt by many Afghans as the Taliban take control.

I've called on the Government to do everything in its power to evacuate British citizens, local embassy staff, and those Afghans who so bravely assisted British and allied troops during the 20-year military intervention; and it is clear that many thousands have now been moved to safety on UK flights, including thousands of Afghans. That being said, my thoughts and prayers continue to be with the many Afghans who remain in their country, whose lives and liberties now hang in the balance.

The decision to withdraw troops so rapidly and chaotically pulled the rug from under the feet of the Afghan people. Building a sustainable peace takes commitment – it is highly regrettable that the US decided to withdraw so swiftly at this time, and that the UK has followed suit. This is a crisis for which we share responsibility, and we must do all we can to mitigate the most disastrous of outcomes.

We must work together to prevent a humanitarian and refugee crisis – and the significant danger of presenting the Taliban with the space and means to consolidate anti-Western sentiment and escalate the threat to ourselves and our international partners. But now, with great urgency, we must collectively do everything possible to pressure the Taliban – by whatever means – to respect the rights of all Afghan citizens, in particular women and persecuted minorities.

This is a terrible time for our servicemen and women who have sacrificed so much over 20 years, including many based at Warminster. We have chosen to leave, and I believe this was a colossal mistake. It makes the West look unreliable in the eyes of our allies, and lacking resolve in the eyes of our enemies. Tom Tugendhat MP – a colleague of mine and a former soldier – put it very well in the House of Commons, remarking that these past few weeks many veterans have "struggled through anger, grief and rage — through the feeling of abandonment of not just a country, but the sacrifice that my friends made".

My own personal message to our veterans locally, is that despite the unfathomable situation we are seeing in our newspapers and on our television screens, your sacrifices have not been in vain. For the last twenty years we have kept Al Qaeda off our streets, drastically reduced the terrorist threat to the UK. Those twenty years were also spent building infrastructure for one of the poorest countries in the world and educating women and girls, with over 3.6 million girls in school this year alone who would have otherwise never had access to education.For this, of course, we must always remember the 457 brave British service personnel who laid down their lives in Afghanistan,alongside the 69,000 Afghan army troops who have also given their lives in this awful conflict.