Inside Politics: Raab faces MPs over Afghan crisis and experts to delay teen Covid jabs

Joe Biden last night attempted to turn the page on Afghanistan, declaring that the “forever war” is over. Meanwhile, the UK is engaging with the new Taliban regime to get stranded Britons home. Elsewhere, government advisers on vaccination are resisting intense political pressure to give the go-ahead for Covid jabs for all Britain’s teenagers.

Amid an internal Whitehall blame game over Afghanistan Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, appears before the Commons foreign affairs committee at 2pm to face questions about his – and the government’s – chaotic handling of the crisis. Yesterday Raab sought to blame the Ministry of Defence over “clearly wrong” intelligence about how quickly the Taliban could take over as western forces withdrew. Expect more buck passing this afternoon.

Coming up:

-Home Office minister Victoria Atkins on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

-Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy on Times Radio Breakfast at 8.35am

TALIBAN TALKS: With the last US plane having left Kabul, Britain and the West now face the reality that the Taliban is in charge of Afghanistan and they have no choice but to engage with the new regime. The UK government has opened up a dialogue with the militant group’s leadership about ensuring a safe passage out of the country for remaining British nationals, whose numbers are thought to be in the low hundreds, according to Raab. No 10 confirmed last night that Simon Gass, Boris Johnson’s special representative for Afghan transition, has travelled to Qatar to meet Taliban representatives.

NOT BIDING HIS TIME: US President Joe Biden held a press conference in which he launched the strongest defence yet of his decision to pull out of Afghanistan and his move not to extend the 31 August evacuation deadline. “I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he declared in an address to the nation. As had been trailed in a White House statement prior to the speech, the president said the decision to end the Kabul airlift was based on the “unanimous recommendations of my civilian and military advisers”. Biden is still coming under heavy criticism for his handling of the crisis from some within his own party and Republicans who are asking why the evacuation didn’t start sooner.

JABS PRESSURE: With the new school year just around the corner, and growing fears of a spike in infections as pupils return to the classroom, the government’s expert advisers on vaccination are resisting intense political pressure to give the go-ahead for Covid jabs for all Britain’s teenagers because of fears it could disrupt the programme of boosters for vulnerable older people, The Independent has learnt.

‘PRIORITISE BOOSTERS’: The MHRA medicines regulator has already cleared the Pfizer and Moderna jabs for those aged 12 and over on safety grounds, but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has the responsibility to consider the wider question of how the rollout of vaccines will have the greatest positive impact across society as a whole. A person close to the JCVI told The Independent that there is “a need to consider how to prioritise boosters for vulnerable groups and a campaign for that, along with getting people to have their second doses before trying to launch a schools programme”. The department of health said it was waiting for advice from the JCVI.

GREEN LIGHT FOR JAB PASSPORTS: In other Covid updates, the government intends to press ahead with plans to introduce vaccine passports for nightclubs from the end of September, despite concerns from MPs and leaders in the hospitality industry. The PM’s official spokesperson said plans for the scheme, which was announced in July, are still in place. “We set out broadly our intention to require our vaccination for nightclubs and some other settings and we’ll be coming forward in the coming weeks with details for that,” the spokesperson said. Imposing passports is likely to make vaccine hesitant people even more reluctant to get jabbed, according to a study of 16,000 people, which makes the front of this morning’s Guardian. Professor John Drury, a social psychologist, tells the paper “the young, the poor and ethnic minorities stand to be excluded” by vaccine certification.

UC CUTS: Johnson’s government has rejected calls from senior politicians in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to keep the £20-per-week universal credit uplift in place. Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey told cross-party committees from the four nations that the cut will go ahead as planned next month – leaving millions of Britons £1,040 a year worse off. The cabinet minister confirmed that the increase brought in during the Covid crisis would be axed from 6 October, despite mounting pressure from MPs in all parties to maintain the payment on a permanent basis. Stephen Timms, the Labour MP and chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said the government must “change course to prevent severe hardship for many thousands of families”.

“It’s very difficult to give you a firm figure. I can tell you that for UK nationals we’ve secured since April over 5,000, and we’re in the low hundreds.”

Raab says number of Britons left behind in Kabul is in the low hundreds.

“It’s quite a thing to hear Joe Biden extolling the virtues of US troops for desperately trying to mitigate the spectacular mess that he knowingly created at Kabul airport. Like an arsonist thanking the firemen.”

Times Radio chief political commentator Tom Newton Dunn on Biden speech.