Boris Johnson was accused of being a pathological liar today after emails revealed he intervened personally to help an animal charity boss friend of his wife flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister has previously claimed on camera that it was ‘nonsense’ that he intervened to allow Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing and members of his Nawzad charity flee Kabul at the expense of locals as the extremists closed in last summer.
But Foreign Office emails published by MPs today show officials discussing ‘the PM’s decision’ to help Mr Farthing get onto some of the last planes out of the besieged city’s airport.
The heavily redacted correspondence suggests Mr Farthing and his team be classified as animal vets in order to justify their rescue.
‘Having regard to the Prime Minister’s Nowzad decision, the Foreign Secretary might consider the [details redacted] vets and their dependents should be included. They might be able to get to the airport with their dependents in time,’ the emails said.
Downing Street attempted to distance the PM from involvement in the decision on evacuating the Nowzad animals after the emails were released by the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It remains the case that the PM didn’t instruct officials to take any particular course of action.’
The Prime Minister has previously denied intervening to allow Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing and members of his Nawzad charity flee Kabul at the expense of locals as the extremists closed in last summer.
But Foreign Office emails published today show officials discussing ‘the PM’s decision’ to help Mr Farthing get onto some of the last planes out of the besieged city’s airport.
A volunteer at the charity run by former Royal Marine Paul Farthing said in December he had lobbied Carrie Johnson personally to help the menagerie of 170 animals get in the air.
What happened in August 2021 as the Taliban took over Afghanistan?
Dozens of employees from Former Royal Marine Paul ‘Pen’ Farthings’ animal shelter in Afghanistan were able to fly to Britain via Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in September 2020.
There were crazy scenes at the airport, one of the last allied footholds, as thousands of people attempted to flee the hardline Islamist regime.,
But the decision to get them out on one of the final flights out of Kabul sparked anger, after hundreds of locals who worked for allied forces were left behind.
A volunteer at the charity later said he had lobbied Carrie Johnson personally to help the menagerie of 170 animals and their handlers get in the air.
Dominic Dyer told LBC radio that the charity ‘lobbied all the ministers’ about the charter fight, as well as the PM’s wife, a noted animal welfare campaigner.
‘Obviously I know Carrie Johnson. I made very clear my concerns to her. No doubt she spoke to him (the PM)’, he told the broadcaster.
‘Carrie Johnson took the message forward, not just through me but through the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.’
The plight of Farthing and his animals attracted much media attention in Britain, and led to a bitter row with defence minister Ben Wallace who said he could not allow anyone to jump the queue and would not prioritise pets over people.
What did Boris Johnson say about this claim that he did his wife’s bidding?
The PM had previously directly denied intervening. When the row first broke in December he used a television interview to say: ‘That’s complete nonsense.
‘But what I can tell you is that I think that the Operation Pitting to airlift 15,000 people out of Kabul in the way that we did over the summer was one of the outstanding military achievements of the last 50 years or more.’
Sir Laurie Bristow, who was on the ground as ambassador to Afghanistan during the withdrawal, told MPs today that no Afghans who could have been rescued were left behind as a result of the animal airlift.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman said today he had not seen the emails, but repeated that the prime minister had not been involved.
‘I know that the defence secretary yesterday made clear that at no stage .. did the prime minister ask him to make way for the pets, that no one jumped the queue and obviously we’ve made clear previously that the prime minister did not instruct officials to take any particular course of action,’ he said.
Yesterday the Defence Secretary insisted the Prime Minister did not ask him to clear the way out of Afghanistan for Mr Farthing’s animals ‘at any stage’.
Appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ben Wallace said: ‘No-one lobbied me… The Prime Minister didn’t ring up. At no stage, at any stage, did the Prime Minister ask me to make a way for those pets. Not at all. Never.’
What does today’s evidence show?
The emails released today by the Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Boris opponent Tom Tugendat, show officials directly linking the Prime Minister to the decision to get Mr Farthing and his team into the air.
The emails released today by the Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Boris opponent Tom Tugendat, show officials directly linking the Prime Minister to the decision to get Mr Farthing and his team into the air.
An official in the office of Lord Goldsmith – as a friend of Carrie Johnson – wrote: ‘Equivalent charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated, [animal charity – name redacted] are hoping to be treated in the same capacity (granted LOTR).’
Another Foreign Office official wrote: about ‘the PM’s decision earlier today to evacuate the staff of the Nowzad animal charity’, adding: ‘Having regard to the Prime Minister’s Nowzad decision, the Foreign Secretary might consider the [details redacted] vets and their dependents should be included. They might be able to get to the airport with their dependents in time.’
Additionally a senior official was heard saying Boris Johnson had issued the call for evacuation of Nowzad staff, whistleblower Raphael Marshall wrote in evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr Marshall wrote: ‘On Wednesday 25 August, I heard the senior official (‘Crisis Silver’) responsible for Afghan Special Cases say that they had just received an instruction from the Prime Minister to ”call-forward” Nowzad’s staff to Kabul Airport for evacuation.
‘I then heard Silver instruct team members to send the names and passport details of Nowzad’s staff to the Home Office for security-checks.
‘A colleague said ”we are doing the dogs” or ”we are doing the dog people”. A colleague said that the Prime Minister had issued this instruction in a COBR meeting. It is possible the high-level meeting referred to was in-fact technically a National Security Council meeting.’
Has any other evidence shed doubt on the Prime Minister’s denial?
In December, Labour MP Chris Bryant reveled a letter sent by Mr Johnson’s political private secretary Trudy Harrison to Mr Farthing, in which she said British authorities would help 68 staff and the animals flee.
In the letter dated August 25, Ms Harrison said she had ‘received confirmation’ from the Foreign Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence they would be permitted to travel to the airport.
She said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had ‘made it clear’ that all 68 of the shelter’s staff and their family members would be able to board an RAF flight.
‘The Secretary of State has also confirmed that animals under the care of Nowzad [Mr Farthing’s shelter] can be evacuated on a separate, chartered flight,’ she continued.
‘The Ministry of Defence will ensure that a flight slot is available… You are therefore authorised to proceed, I wish you well on your journey.’
What are MPs saying about today’s revelations?
Labour former minister Chris Bryant raised questions in the Commons about how he could ‘get to the bottom of who is telling the truth’ over evacuation of a charity and its animals from Afghanistan.
Raising a point of order, he said: ‘The Prime Minister said on August 26 that he had no influence on that particular case and nor would that be right.
‘On December 7 he was asked ”Did you intervene to get Pen Farthing’s animals out?”, he said ”No, that is complete nonsense”. And a Downing Street spokesperson said ”Neither the Prime Minister nor Mrs Johnson were involved”.
‘Yet today the Foreign Affairs Committee has been able to publish a letter from Lord Goldsmith’s office which says the ”Prime Minister has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated”.
‘How can I get to the bottom of who is telling the truth?’
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran also raised concerns about the matter, including on the ‘discrepancy between what the Prime Minister says to journalists versus what is revealed’ in the Commons.