The chair of the Commons’ defence committee, Tobias Ellwood, has resigned from his position following criticism over a video he posted on social media, Sky News understands.
The Tory MP, who had been the chair of the cross-party group since 2020, got here underneath strain to give up after sharing the clip on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter, the place he appeared to reward the Taliban’s management in Afghanistan.
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Four members of the committee tabled a movement of no confidence towards him inside days – the primary time this measure to take away a committee chair had been used – and a vote was anticipated to happen by this Thursday.
But a supply has now informed Sky News Mr Ellwood jumped earlier than he was pushed, resigning from the submit on Tuesday.
Sky News have approached the MP and the committee for a response.
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Mr Ellwood shared the video in July exhibiting him visiting Afghanistan, slightly below two years after the nation was seized again by the Taliban.
Since its return, the Taliban has reinstated bans on training for ladies and launched legal guidelines stopping girls from going to work, in addition to outlawing girls’s magnificence salons and stopping girls from being in public areas, comparable to parks and gymnasiums.
In the clip, the Tory MP – whose brother was killed by Islamist extremists – stated the “war-weary nation” was now “accepting a more authoritarian leadership in exchange for stability”.
He urged the UK to reopen its embassy in Afghanistan – saying: “If the EU’s embassy can open up, so can ours.”
And he stated: “Shouting from afar will not improve women’s rights.”
After an enormous backlash from politicians, people rights campaigners and girls’s teams, Mr Ellwood apologised, saying his “reflections” after a “personal visit” to Afghanistan “could have been worried better”.
But he appeared to defend a few of his preliminary ideas – reiterating that “our current strategy of shouting from afar, after abruptly abandoning the country in 2021, is not working”.
Mr Ellwood argued: “My simple call to action was to see our embassy reopen again and pursue a more direct strategy to help the 40 million people we abandoned.”
It just isn’t but clear who will exchange Mr Ellwood because the committee chair.
Content Source: information.sky.com