Leaked email shows Boris Johnson personally intervened to ensure animals were evacuated from Afghanistan, contradicting No. 10's denials

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Leaked email shows Boris Johnson personally intervened to ensure animals were evacuated from Afghanistan, contradicting No. 10's denials
British troops boarding one of the final flights out of Kabul, Afghanistan, after the Taliban takeover.Jonathan Gifford/Ministry of Defence via AP
  • The UK evacuated dozens of animals from Kabul after it fell to the Taliban last August.
  • Downing Street at the time strongly denied the prime minister had any involvement.
  • But an email leaked by a whistleblower show Johnson personally intervened to ensure the evacuation.
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Boris Johnson personally authorised the evacuation of 170 cats and dogs from Afghanistan last August, internal government emails say — contradicting Downing Street's previous denials that the prime minister was involved in the effort.

One email sent by a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office official on August 25, 2021, said Johnson had given permission for the evacuation. The animals had been housed in a rescue shelter in Afghanistan run by the former Marine Pen Farthing.

The email, which was sent by an official in Foreign Office minister Zac Goldsmith's office to the FCDO's "special cases" desk, read: "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."

The evacuation of the animals had garnered heavy criticism at the time given the number of vulnerable Afghans desperate to leave their country.

The email, which was published Wednesday by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was submitted by the whistleblower Raphael Marshall, who previously worked for the FCDO.

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Around 100 dogs and 70 cats were evacuated from Kabul and brought to the UK on a charter flight in August.

The prime minister's official spokesman insisted on Wednesday that he "didn't instruct any official to take any particular course of action," although stressed he had not yet seen the emails.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Wednesday said the prime minister had no personal involvement with Pen Farthing or his evacuation attempts and said it was run under his authority.

"I have seen the reports of emails concerning Pen Farthing and pet evacuation," Wallace said in a statement.

"The evacuation of Kabul under Op Pitting was run under my authority and carried out by the UK military through the Joint Chief of Operations. At no point were he or I directed by the Prime Minister to evacuate Pen Farthing, his workforce or his pets.

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Wallace said Goldsmith, who is an environment minister in the Foreign Office, had no authority to speak for the prime minister and did not have any involvement in the evacuation. Carrie Johnson, the prime minister's wife, is close personal friends with Goldsmith and the Johnson family holidayed at a villa linked to Goldsmith last year.

"As I made clear at the time, we were not going to put pets before people and as the actions showed, Pen Farthing left last and his workforce had to leave after the evacuation was concluded via other means."

"The evacuation was a Ministry of Defence led operation, supported by application processing by the Home Office and FCDO," his statement said.

"The idea that an Environment Minister and his officials had any authority or responsibility in the running of the evacuation is ludicrous."

One former minister told Insider Goldsmith and Downing Street adviser Henry Newman, another close friend of Carrie Johnson, "have too much influence [over the prime minister.]"

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Goldsmith on Wednesday afternoon appeared to distance himself from the email sent by an official in his office and said he had no involvement with discussions over Nowzad.

"I did not authorise & do not support anything that would have put animals' lives ahead of peoples'," he wrote on Twitter.

"My position, which I made clear publicly, was that the UK should prioritise evacuating people. I never discussed the NOWZAD charity or their efforts to evacuate animals with the PM."

The December denial by Downing Street about Johnson's involvement came after Marshall, the FCDO whistleblower, accused the prime minister of making intervening to save the animals in a "direct trade-off" with human lives.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Marshall's claims were "entirely untrue."

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"The PM did not instruct officials to take any particular course of action on that issue," they added.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, a member of the Foreign Affairs committee which published the email, on Wednesday told Sky News: "Why did some people get left behind but Pen Farthing and Nowzad were allowed to evacuate their animals?"

"If somebody has lied, then they do need to resign," Bryant said.

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