I fought the Taliban. Britain cannot betray its values by making deals with them

We did not fight an abstract enemy. We fought a ruthless armed group that systematically terrorised communities, tortured those who resisted and destroyed lives. To suggest that Britain should strike a deal with the Taliban is not only morally indefensible but also a betrayal of everything British soldiers fought to defend.

From 2014 up until 2021, I strove to secure safe passage out of Afghanistan for the brave interpreters and men of my Kandak (Afghan Battalion). Of the 17 cases I pursued, 12 have been murdered - sometimes alongside family members - one secured asylum in Germany, one here, and the whereabouts of 3 are unknown, but I fear the worst. The fate of those who might be returned having successfully reached our shores would be indisputable - a Makarov in the nape of the neck.

Today, the Taliban is an authoritarian regime that routinely tortures people for seeking an education, expressing political opinions, or simply standing up for their basic rights. Afghans who once helped British forces and interpreters now live in fear of reprisals. Families are displaced, lives are shattered, and survivors carry lifelong scars – nightmares, flashbacks and a constant sense of fear.

This is not a distant memory: in the UK, the charity Freedom from Torture, which supports Afghan torture survivors, sees the human cost in their therapy rooms every day.

For centuries, the UK has been a leading voice in the fight against torture around the world, helping to shape the very international laws that Reform proposes we abandon. The UN Convention Against Torture is a promise to defend our shared right to live a life free from torture, and it is one of humanity’s clearest moral lines. It is not negotiable.

Abandoning these principles would not only endanger vulnerable people, but it would also signal to regimes around the world that Britain will turn a blind eye to cruelty when it suits. This is not the Britain I served, and it is not the Britain we should be.

We stand at a moral crossroads: either we defend human rights, the rule of law and those who put their lives on the line for us, or we turn our backs on the very values that make us who we are.

As someone who has seen the Taliban’s terrible cruelty up close, I urge all political parties to categorically reject any arrangements with repressive regimes that may result in survivors being sent back into the hands of their torturers.

Britain must stand firm. We cannot, and must not, betray the sacrifices our soldiers made, the Afghan people who trusted us and the principles that define us.

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Robert Gallimore is a Former British Army Officer.

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