Boris Johnson's Afghanistan response slammed by Kate Garraway on ITV's GMB

British troops are racing against the clock to get remaining UK nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan following the dramatic fall of the country’s Western-backed government.

Kabul airport has so far not come under attack but there are fears that could change quickly with Taliban insurgents now effectively in control of the capital.

Triumphal fighters were pictured in the presidential palace abandoned by President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country while his forces gave up the city without a fight.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke out about the escalating crisis in Kabul.

He said: “I think it is very important that the West should work collectively to get over to that new government, be it by the Taliban or anybody else ,that nobody wants Afghanistan once again to be a breeding ground for terror and we don't think it is in the interests of the people of Afghanistan that it should lapse back into that pre-2001 status.”

Kate Garraway slams Boris Johnson

Members of Joint Forces Headquarters deploying to Afghanistan to assist in the drawdown of troops from the area (LPhot Ben Shread/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA)

His response drew criticism of GMB’s Kate Garraway who was presenting the show alongside Charlotte Hawkins.

They welcomed Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor of the Daily Mirror, and Amanda Platell, a columnist, to the show to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Kate said: “So, has the whole thing just been a gigantic failure?

“You hear Boris Johnson saying ‘Oh we mustn’t let this becoming a place for terror to breed’, but it’s going to be!

“What’s going to stop it?”

Amanda Platell said the cuts to the defence budget make it difficult for the UK government to deploy troops to help, even if they wanted to.

Kate added: “I suspect there will be lots of people who say ‘enough is enough’.”

Kevin Maguire called the UK and US presence in Afghanistan a “twenty-year experiment”.

Kate added: “I don’t know, Kevin, because if you’re the Taliban and you’re in there listening and you hear all these people are going...if you’re a government in such an unstable part of the world, you just feel like the forces that have been supporting you are abandoning you, don’t you?

“They must be ingrained over so many centuries, the inevitability of that kind of that side of their political system coming back over.

“It just must have felt inevitable and they were better to run and flee for their safety rather than get into another massive conflict.”

Desperate situation in Afghanistan

Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country (Zabi Karimi/AP)

Around 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the city and in need of evacuation.

In a sign of the desperate situation, the British ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow was said to be helping the small team of diplomats still in the country to process the applications of those hoping to leave.

There was particular concern for the safety of Afghans who worked with British forces when they were in the country as interpreters and in other roles amid fears of reprisals if they fall into the hands of the insurgents.

The Taliban insisted that they were seeking a peaceful takeover of power and were prepared to offer an amnesty to those who had worked with the Afghan government or with foreign governments.

However those assurances were being treated with deep scepticism by many British MPs amid reports of threats to those who remain and their families.

Labour called on the Government to urgently expand the resettlement scheme for Afghans to ensure that none were left behind.

Good Morning Britain continues to air weekdays from 6am on ITV1.