The UK has been accused of leaving Afghan allies with “no safe route out” of Afghanistan after a “shocking” decision to end evacuation support for those promised sanctuary in the UK.

Defence minister Luke Pollard announced on Tuesday that the nearly 9,000 Afghans eligible to come to the UK but still awaiting relocation would get no help from the UK to flee the Taliban.

They will instead have to make their own way to a third country, such as Pakistan, to receive housing and visa support.

MPs, campaigners, and lawyers who support Afghans who worked alongside the British armed forces but who have been left in limbo said the decision was “shocking and deeply disappointing”.

Chair of the defence committee, Tan Dhesi, said that MPs will look to quiz the minister in May about the decision, asking: “We will want to ask why the government’s policy has changed, and why only now, and what help, if any, will be available to eligible Afghans who are unable to self-move?”

He said that the committee had heard some…