Members of Britain’s Parliament on Tuesday slammed fellow MP and chair of the Commons Defense Committee over his “bizarre propaganda video” hailing the way the Taliban has “transformed” Afghanistan.
MPs blasted Ellwood for posting a “wish you were here” clip while talking about his recent visit to the crisis-wracked country.
Women’s rights campaigners and members of the public also slammed him for ignoring the Taliban’s oppression of women and growing list of human rights abuses.
Ellwood said in his video, posted to social media, that security had vastly improved, corruption was reduced and the opium trade all but ended. He filmed the video while on a trip to the country with the mine-clearing charity the Halo Trust.
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols accused the Tory MP of “making a bizarre propaganda piece for the Taliban,” while Tory MP Mark Francois, who sits on the Defence Committee, said: “Last night, following a visit to Afghanistan, he (Ellwood) posted an utterly bizarre video lauding the Taliban’s management of the country.”
“Something which was described by a fellow member of the Defence Committee to me barely an hour ago as a ‘wish-you-were-here video’, in which he made no mention of the fact that the Taliban are still attempting to identify and kill Afghan citizens who helped our Armed Forces,” Francois said.
He went on to say that Ellwood’s video makes no specific mention that young girls in Afghanistan don’t even have the right to go to school under the Taliban government.
“I wish to make plain, on behalf of the committee, he was speaking for himself, even though he used the title of chairman of our committee in a number of associated articles. Not in our name,” Francois said.
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols meanwhile tweeted: “I know we’re coming into silly season in Westminster, but the Chair of the Defence Select Committee making a bizarre propaganda piece for the Taliban is truly something else.”
