Gordon Brown insists Afghan campaign 'prosecuted out of necessity' to protect UK and world from terror threat

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Britain "cannot, must not and will not walk away" from Afghanistan, Gordon Brown said today.

The prime minister also gave the Kabul government a stern warning that it had to clean up and reform if it was to continue receiving international help.

In a pre-Remembrance Day speech in London, hastily arranged following numerous British deaths in Afghanistan this week, Brown insisted the Afghan campaign was "prosecuted out of necessity" to protect the UK and wider world from the threat of terrorism.

He cited terror attacks in recent years, including those in New York, Bali, Baghdad and London, adding: "When people ask why are we in Afghanistan ... I ask them to look at this list of terrible atrocities."

Addressing an audience at the Royal College of Defence Studies that included senior British and Afghan officers, Brown admitted some people had doubts about the Afghan mission given the flawed electoral process that returned Hamid Karzai for a second term as the Afghan president.

The prime minister called for cleaner government, saying: "Cronies and warlords should have no place in the future of a democratic Afghanistan."

He warned: "I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm's way for a government that does not stand up against corruption."

Whitehall officials later rowed back on this point, saying that Brown's ultimatum did not imply a threatened withdrawal of British troops but rather a withholding of political support if Karzai did not improve his government.

Brown explained that he had spoken to Karzai several times this week and said the two men had agreed a set of goals covering five areas – security, governance, political reconciliation, economic development and relations with neighbouring countries.

"If the [Afghan] government fails to meet these five tests, it will not only have failed its people, it will have forfeited its right for international support," Brown said. He did not explain what the practical implications of this warning might be.

His speech came at the end of a bloody week for British troops in southern Afghanistan, including the killing of five soldiers by an Afghan policeman who was being trained by UK forces.

An army explosives expert, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, was killed by an improvised bomb on Saturday, and another explosion killed a serviceman yesterday.

A Channel 4 News poll yesterday revealed that public opposition to the war had risen sharply in the past fortnight, with 35% of the public believing that all British troops should be withdrawn immediately – up from 25% two weeks ago.

Brown said the UK would not end its mission of training Afghan security forces, adding: "We will not give up this strategy of mentoring, because it is what distinguishes a liberating army from an army of occupation."

But he admitted that people in the UK, as well as the county's troops, were seeking "a clear sense of what success in Afghanistan would look like, and how we will get there".

He continued: "My answer is [that] we will have succeeded when our troops are coming home because the Afghans are providing security themselves, continuing the essential work of denying the territory of Afghanistan as a base for terrorists."

The prime minister also used a section of his speech to rebuff comments made this week by the former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who said the effort and money expended in Afghanistan would be better used on stronger anti-terrorist operations in the UK.

"Investment alone cannot insulate us from the terrorist plots we all face," he said, claiming that three-quarters of all such plans originated in the lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Brown began his speech by specifically linking the Afghan campaign with previous conflicts being remembered at the Cenotaph in London on Sunday.

"Just as in the past we learned of the bravery and sacrifice of British soldiers in the first and second world wars, in their fight to protect freedom both in our nation and the world, so our children will learn of the heroism of today's men and women fighting in Afghanistan – protecting our nation and the rest of the world from threat of global terrorism," he said.

Also today, the former chief of defence staff Lord Guthrie reiterated his criticisms that the government had failed to provide adequate numbers of helicopters for troops in Afghanistan.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that, with additional helicopters, some of these lives which have been lost would have been saved," he told the House of Lords.

The defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, dismissed the claim, telling the BBC: "Lord Guthrie has been making this same speech, sadly, for some time now."

Brown's speech was condemned by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who called it "a woefully belated attempt to win over public support for a war that has cost so many lives".

"The prime minister has finally acknowledged that the British people will always back our brave British troops in the dangerous work they do, but they will not unconditionally support soldiers being sent to fight and die for a corrupt and illegitimate government in Kabul," Clegg said.

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said it was "helpful" to put the Afghanistan mission in the context of national security.

"It is not helpful if this clear message is confused by mixed messages or empty threats," he added.

"We must put pressure on the Karzai government to improve governance and tackle corruption but, if our mission in Afghanistan is a national security imperative, it can't be conditional on the behaviour of others."