Moment Defence Secretary Ben Wallace chokes up as he warns ‘some people won’t get back’ from Afghanistan

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace appeared to choke back tears this morning as he warned that some people will not make it back from Afghanistan.

Asked on LBC about the government’s evacuation plan for British nationals and Afghan refugees after the Taliban seized control of the country following the withdrawal of US and UK troops, Wallace appeared emotional when he said that the government would not be able to save everyone.

“A deep regret for me is some people won’t get back,” he said, his voice breaking. “Some people won’t get back and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people.”

Yesterday Taliban forces took control of capital city Kabul and remaining areas of the country, seizing it. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country “to avoid bloodshed” and said the Taliban had won the 20 year war in the region, in a statement.

Around 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the city and in need of evacuation. The British ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow was said to be helping the small team of diplomats still in the country to process the applications of those hoping to leave as airports descend into chaos with flights cancelled.

Asked why he felt this situation “so personally” Wallace, who served as a captain in the Scots Guard prior to his political career, added: “Because I’m a soldier, because it’s sad and the West has done what it’s done and we have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice is what it is.”

This morning Wallace also outlined the government’s evacuation plan for those stuck in Afghanistan. To BBC Breakfast, he said: “Our flights, our planning and coming in and out and soon if we manage to keep it in the way we’re planning to, we should have capacity for over 1,000 people a day to exit to the UK. Currently this is not about capacity on planes, it’s about processing speed, so that’s why we’re trying to fix that.”

He added: “Our timescale which we’d originally planned, which was August 31, will be out. We will try our very best to get everyone out, it’s one of the biggest regrets of the speed of the collapse of the Afghan government is that those timetables will no doubt have to be shortened and that’s what we’re moving extra assets to do…”

Wallace said the Government was aiming to fly out a further 1,500 people over the next 24 to 36 hours or slightly longer.

“We put in over 600 forces yesterday, today and over the weekend to make sure that we can keep a secure part of the airport functioning and, at the same time, to effectively process, manage and escort people on to our flights to get them out of Afghanistan.”

Boris Johnson said his priority was getting UK nationals and “all those who have helped the UK effort over 20 years” out of Afghanistan “as fast as we can”.