Lib-Dems want exit strategy to end war on Taliban

Liberal Democrats today ratcheted up the pressure for Britain to end its military campaign in Afghanistan.

Delegates at the party's annual rally in Bournemouth tabled an emergency motion calling for the Government to "focus on concluding the Afghanistan mission".

They also demanded that ministers report to Parliament "in detail on progress towards a withdrawal".

Backbencher John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley, branded the decision to deploy thousands of troops to the southern Helmand province as a "mistake". "We should start a gradual process of withdrawal by which we move our troops back to urban areas and hand over responsibility for security to the Afghan government and forces," he said.

"I wish we had not gone into Helmand province in the first instance. I would like to see troops coming home as soon as possible."

North Southwark and Bermondsey MP Simon Hughes, a member of party leader Nick Clegg's shadow cabinet, added: "Planning for a future in Afghanistan without Britain's heavy and painful commitment clearly has to start now."

Chesterfield Lib-Dem MP Paul Holmes stressed that the public had turned against the war with the Taliban. "There has to be a clear exit strategy," he said. "They have got to abandon the idea that they can leave a functioning, western liberal democracy."

The motion, by ethnic minority and Leicestershire Lib-Dem groups, stops short of demanding the withdrawal of UK forces.

But it calls for "an end to the killing and to 30 years of war in Afghanistan", a peace process not dependent on Allied forces having the "upper hand militarily" and a ceasefire.

"We should not be running around in circles for another six months," said defence spokesman Nick Harvey.

Britain has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan and military chiefs were today said to be planning to deploy 1,000 more as part of US General Stanley McChrystal's "surge" strategy. The UK death toll since the start of the war in 2001 is 217.