Dominic Raab making a phone call has become a hilarious meme

Dominic Raab’s future as Foreign Secretary is growing increasingly precarious as fury at his handling of the Afghanistan crisis mounts.

Raab has rejected calls to quit after it emerged that he failed to make a crucial call to his Afghan counterpart two days before the Talibanmarched on the country’s capital Kabul.

The minister was reportedly “unavailable” when officials in his department suggested he “urgently” call foreign minister Hanif Atmar on August 13 to arrange help for those who supported British troops.

At the time he was on holiday at a five-star resort on the Greek island of Crete.

The fallout has prompted clamours for his resignation or sacking from the prominent Government post, but it has also – inevitably – given rise to a number of mocking memes.

A press photo taken of Raab sitting at his desk and speaking on the phone has been seized upon by scores of Twitter users who have used it to ridicule the high profile politician.

Here’s a look at some of the best and most cutting:

Angela Rayner and her Labour colleagues have lashed out the Foreign Secretary, accusing him of an “unforgiveable failure of leadership.

The party has demanded details about the Government’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, setting out a list of 18 urgent questions for Raab to answer about his trip and his department’s approach to the crisis.

After it emerged that he had failed to make the urgent call to Atmar, officials responded that the task was delegated to a junior minister in the UK Foreign Office.

However, on Thursday night the Daily Mail reported that the call never took place. The Government department has since confirmed that this is, indeed, true.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “Given the rapidly changing situation it was not possible to arrange a call before the Afghan government collapsed.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that Sir Philip Barton, Matthew Rycroft and David Williams, the respective permanent secretaries of the Foreign Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence, were on holiday amid the evacuations from Afghanistan.

It is understood that the senior officials continued to work on Afghanistan while on leave, with the Whitehall departments running systems where there is another minister or an acting permanent secretary to cover periods of leave.

A Government spokesperson said: “Departments across Whitehall have been working intensively at all levels in the last few days and weeks on the situation in Afghanistan.

“Thanks to these efforts, we have relocated over 2,000 Afghans to the UK since June, evacuated over 400 British nationals and their families on RAF flights since Sunday and established one of the most generous asylum schemes in British history.”

Labour said it is requesting specifics on when Raab was out of the country and on leave from official duties, if he received advice from officials on the advisability of leaving as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, if he attended a Cobra meeting on August 15, and if other ministers were authorised to approve those intelligence operations designated urgent in his absence.

The party also questioned the Prime Minister’s involvement, asking Raab if he spoke with Boris Johnson while he was away, and if the PM gave permission for him to leave the country.

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: “For the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary to be on holiday during the biggest foreign policy crisis in a generation is an unforgivable failure of leadership.”

Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru have all called for Raab to either quit or be sacked by the PM.

They accused him of failing to “perform his basic duties” and argued he is “no longer fit” to represent the country.