A whistle blower has claimed that Boris Johnson DID order the controversial airlift of an animal rescue charity in Afghanistan and a top officials “must have” deliberately lied about it.
A second Foreign Office worker suggested it was widely known the order for Nowzad staff came from the PM, according to a new testimony which has been published.
Josie Stewart, Head of Illicit Finance in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), said she spoke out after being put in “an impossible situation in which my conscience could not tolerate what FCDO required of me.”
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It follows e-mails released in January which said the Prime Minister had personally "authorised" an evacuation effort to get Pen Farthing, cats and dogs and Nowzad charity workers out of Afghanistan last summer, while the Taliban stormed the country.
The Prime Minister denied the story at the time, saying: "No, this whole thing is total rhubarb.” When pressed over whether he personally intervened, he said "absolutely not", adding "the military always prioritised human beings and that was quite right".
But Ms Stewart said: “It was widespread ‘knowledge’ in the FCDO Crisis Centre that the decision on Nowzad’s Afghan staff came from the Prime Minister.
“I saw messages to this effect on Microsoft Teams, I heard it discussed in the Crisis Centre including by senior civil servants.
“And I was copied on numerous emails which clearly suggested this and which no one, including Nigel Casey acting as ‘Crisis Gold’, challenged.”
Ms Stewart, who volunteered to work on the Afghanistan response, wrote: “My actions are likely to result in my dismissal from FCDO. I loved my job. I loved working with my regular team and department, and am devastated to be leaving them.”
She singled out the evidence of two officials - FCDO permanent under-secretary Philip Barton and FCDO Afghanistan director Nigel Casey - who are due to give follow-up evidence this afternoon, reports the Mirror.
She wrote: “I cannot fathom why either Philip Barton or Nigel Casey would have intentionally lied to the Committee, but I believe that they must have done so…
“I have tried to imagine but cannot conceive of any way this could have been an honest mistake.”
Ms Stewart's revelations follow evidence given by Raphael Marshall, who also worked for the FCDO.
Following the evidence in January, top Foreign Office official Sir Philip apologised for misleading MPs over the controversial airlift of cats and dogs from Afghanistan.
Sir Philip Barton admitted he had given "inadvertently inaccurate answers" when he told the Foreign Affairs Committee that Nigel Casey, the PM's special representative in Afghanistan, had not received any correspondence suggesting Boris Johnson authorised the evacuation of animals from the Nowzad charity.
Leaked emails showed Mr Casey asked an official "to seek clear guidance for us from No10 asap on what they would like us to do" in the case.
But Ms Stewart today said Sir Philip's claim that he "inadvertently" got it wrong was not "credible".
She wrote in evidence published by the Foreign Affairs Committee: "It is possible, although it would be surprising, that neither Philip Barton nor Nigel Casey remembered seeing the emails about supposed PM involvement on the day they were sent.
"I cannot see how it is possible that they would not have found the extensive evidence of this when asked about it later."
Meanwhile in January, Mr Casey told the committee: "I checked all my emails on the subject and I could not find any that referred to any prime ministerial intervention on the subject of Nowzad."
But Ms Stewart said "yet when I searched my emails for 'PM' and 'Nowzad' I found more than one email referencing 'the PM's decision on Nowzad' and with Nigel Casey in copy.
"So the only possible explanations are that a) Nigel Casey had deleted his emails (which everyone who had worked on the Afghanistan crisis had been ordered by Diptel not to do); b) he did not know how to use the "CTRL-F" function in Outlook, or searched for something other than 'PM' and 'Nowzad'; c) he found the emails but somehow concluded they were not relevant, despite mentioning 'the PM's decision on Nowzad'; or d) he was lying".
Ex-Royal Marine Pen Farthing was able to evacuate 173 cats and dogs from the country using a charter plane funded by donations raised in a high profile campaign.
He has insisted it did not slow down the UK's own evacuation of more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan. But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said at the time: “I think it has taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.”
Ms Stewart said she was "not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally."
But she added that in her opinion: "The decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under [Leave Outside the Rules] was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria.
"The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case."
She added: "FCDO has a responsibility to be open and accountable, to not mislead Parliament or the public."
Ms Stewart also dismissed claims that civil servants often portrayed decisions as coming from the Prime Minister if they did not.
In February, Foreign Office minister Lord Goldsmith claimed in the Lords that: "It's not uncommon in Whitehall (...) for decisions to be interpreted or portrayed as coming directly from one department or another or even the Prime Minister, even when that isn't the case.
She said: "I have never in my career seen any such thing. Governance would fall apart entirely if this were the case."
She also said she considered letters by Sir Philip and Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad, which claimed Nowzad staff were considered among those to be evacuated if space became available, "misleading".
She said: "While factually accurate, from what I heard and saw, Nowzad staff were included as a late addition only in response to this ‘PM decision.’ This occurred against the previous judgement of officials."
Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran called for a public inquiry, saying: "The evidence is piling up that Boris Johnson has once again lied to the British people.
“The Prime Minister claimed that he didn't authorise the evacuation of Nowzad animals and staff from Kabul.
“But all the facts point in the opposite direction. You can’t trust Boris Johnson to tell the truth. It is shameful.”
