Boris Johnson will ask Joe Biden to extend the evacuation of US troops from Afghanistan. 

Minister for the armed forces, James Heappey and foreign office minister,  James Cleverly, said Britain would push for the deadline to be extended past August 31 to increase the number of people who could be evacuated. 

Mr Heappey told Sky News around 4,000 people who were eligible to come to the United Kingdom were still stuck in Afghanistan. 

The government wants to evacuate thousands more eligible if possible. 

Mr Cleverly told the BBC: “The thing that I think we’ve all learnt over the last week or so is that the timelines around which we plan are not always completely in our own control.

“Now obviously the more time that we’ve got, the more people we can evacuate and that’s what we’re pushing for.”

The Taliban seemed to be cooperating but Britain could not rely on that support lasting indefinitely, he said.

“So we are prioritising getting as many people out as quickly as possible. If we can buy more time that is great but I think that we shouldn’t be relying on the fact that we will get more time to do this,” Cleverly said.

Johnson will host a virtual meeting of leaders from the G7 group of advanced economies on Tuesday.

The British government is also seeking new sanctions against the Taliban.