Commons Defence Committee chief Tobias Ellwood launches desperate bid to survive no-confidence motion by furious MPs as he DELETES ‘Taliban propaganda video’ he made of Afghan visit and issues grovelling apology

• Members have been looking to remove Mr Ellwood from his £17,000-a-year post
• The Taliban has barred women from most areas of public life in Afghanistan

Tobias Ellwood is desperately trying to cling on as chair of the Commons Defence Committee today after issuing a grovelling apology for posting a ‘Taliban propaganda video’ from a trip to Afghanistan.

The former minister has deleted the extraordinary footage posted on social media praising the ‘vastly improved’ security situation and urging the restoration of diplomatic ties after a furious backlash from colleagues.

Mr Ellwood admitted he ‘got it wrong’ and his positive messages about the new regime – which has stripped women of rights and been accused of persecuting opponents – could have been ‘better worded’.

But the MP is still facing the prospect of a vote of no confidence in his chairmanship, which brings a £17,000 a year salary bump, with committee members branding him a ‘f***ing idiot’. 

One warned this morning that the apology would not be enough to save him – although the parliamentary recess means he cannot be formally ousted until September.  

Colleagues laid into Tobias Ellwood for posting a ‘wish you were here’ clip talking about his recent visit to the war-torn country

Mr Ellwood, pictured in 2015, has served as a full-time soldier and more recently a reservist  

In a message posted on Twitter overnight, Mr Ellwood said: ‘ However well intentioned, reflections of my personal visit could have been better worded.’

In a message posted on Twitter overnight, Mr Ellwood said: ‘However well intentioned, reflections of my personal visit could have been better worded.

‘I am sorry for my poor communication. I stand up, speak my mind, try to see the bigger picture and offer solutions, especially on the international stage, as our world turns a dangerous corner.

‘I don’t always get it right.’

Mr Ellwood said losing his brother in the 2002 Bali bombing drew him to visit Afghanistan ‘many times over the last decade’.

‘During my visit last week, I witness something I did not expect to see – an eerie calm and a visible change in security, corruption and opium growth which I felt obliged to report,’ he said.

‘But I also saw a very vulnerable economy that will soon collapse without international intervention, turning this country into a failed state with terrorist camps no doubt returning and triggering mass migration.

‘I also saw the increasing restrictions on women and girls. This suggests out current strategy; of shouting from afar, after abruptly abandoning the country in 2021, is not working. My simple call to action was to see our embassy reopen again and pursue a more direct strategy to help the 40million people that we abandoned.’

Committee member Mark Francois raised the extraordinary footage at PMQs yesterday.

‘Vastly improved’? Women’s rights gone, executions, floggings and crackdowns are in

Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban has barred women from most areas of public life and work.

Girls are banned from attending school beyond the sixth grade, and women can no longer work at local and non-governmental organisations.

The group has also cracked down on any media or press freedoms.

In June, the Taliban carried out what is believed to be its second public execution since it returned to power. The first was last December, when a man convicted of murdering another man was executed with an assault rifle by the victim’s father in front of hundreds of spectators.

In May, the UN, said 274 men, 58 women and two boys had been publicly flogged during the previous six months.

The group has essentially clamped down on activities they deem to be contrary to Islamic teachings, including banning music at weddings.

The former minister branded the video, praising the ‘vastly improved’ security situation under the Taliban and calling for diplomatic ties to be restored, ‘naive’. ‘This was not in our name,’ Mr Francois said.

Sources on the committee told MailOnline that Mr Ellwood had been a ‘f***ing idiot’ and members were ‘looking at the procedure’ for removing him from the £20,000-a-year post. ‘He is going to have to resign or we will vote him off,’ they said.

Mr Ellwood’s praise of the Afghan regime came as footage showed Taliban forces using water cannons on a group of women who were protesting their subjugation.

Downing Street also delivered a veiled rebuke, saying the government had no intention of changing policy toward the Taliban. 

Angry colleagues believe there is no way of ousting him before the summer recess, and are instead planning to move when the House returns in September.

The video from the trip to Afghanistan showed the former defence minister saying it is time to restore diplomatic relations with extremists who killed hundreds of British troops and have banned girls from attending school and stopped women from working.

Mr Ellwood’s apparent praise of the Taliban also came as the country’s forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot their guns into the air to break up a peaceful protest held by dozens of women after the regime ordered the closure of beauty salons nationwide. Some protesters said they were shot at with stun guns.

The video, in which Mr Ellwood commended the Taliban for the ‘vastly improved’ security situation, was retweeted approvingly by the Afghan government’s spokesman yesterday.

Mr Ellwood, a former soldier, used the two-minute video to urge the Government to ‘re-engage’ with the Taliban saying that Afghanistan was enjoying ‘calm’ since the fall of Kabul.

He said the visit with mine-clearing charity the Halo Trust had convinced him that the UK should be reopening its embassy.

‘Shouting from afar will not improve women’s rights. We need to re-engage. We need to re-open the British Embassy,’ he said.

MPs said he had effectively produced a ‘wish you were here’ film.

However, Mr Ellwood did receive some backing. Fellow Tory MP Bob Seely, who served in Afghanistan, told MailOnline: ‘Tobias is being brave, intelligent and credible to make this argument and to visit Afghanistan.

‘I thank him for doing so. Just because it is painful to hear, it doesn’t mean it’s not true and at least it’s an important opinion that needs to be heard.’

Committee member Mark Francois raised the extraordinary footage, posted by his fellow Tory MP on social media, at PMQs yesterday

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