UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has denied suggestions that London had pushed the US to keep open the Kabul airport entrance targeted by a suicide bomber last week, despite warnings it was set to be attacked.

Raab said that nothing the UK had done “would have required or necessitated Abbey Gate to be left open”.

This contradicts reporting by news outlet Politico on Monday, which suggested US troops had decided to keep the Abbey Gate open longer than they wanted to allow the UK to continue its accelerated evacuation operation.

The gate was attacked last Thursday, killing as many as 170 people, including 13 US troops.

“We did everything we could to negate the risk,” Raab said on Tuesday.

“We also shifted the civilian team that we had in the Baron Hotel to the airport, because [being] a stone’s throw away from where the terrorist attack took place, it clearly wasn’t safe.

“But none of that would have required or necessitated Abbey Gate to be left open,” Raab said.