Labour MP says government guilty of cover-up over Kabul evacuated animals row

A senior MP has accused the government of "a cover-up" over the evacuation of an animal charity from Kabul.

Labour's Chris Bryant produced a letter from Boris Johnson's parliamentary aide to charity boss Pen Farthing confirming flights for his staff and animals.

Mr Johnson earlier dismissed as "nonsense" claims he had intervened in the evacuation of the Nowzad charity.

Mr Bryant told the Foreign Affairs Committee that Trudy Harrison's letter appeared to contradict the PM.

Downing Street said the evacuation flights had been an "operational decision" and "neither the PM nor Mrs Johnson were involved", despite allegations to the contrary by whistleblowers.

"This letter was nothing to do with Ms Harrison's role as the PM's Parliamentary Private Secretary, she was acting in her capacity as a constituency MP."

Ms Harrison's local newspaper, the Westmoreland Gazette, reported in August that she had been in contact with constituents and Mr Farthing over vets trapped in Afghanistan.

The charity operated an animal clinic, dog and cat shelter and donkey sanctuary in Afghanistan, training and employing Afghans.

When the Taliban took control of the capital, its supporters launched a campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk.

Around 15,000 people were airlifted out of the country in August, including Mr Farthing and 150 animals. His staff were left behind, but later made it safely to Pakistan.

On Tuesday at the Foreign Office select committee hearing, senior diplomats repeatedly insisted that pets had not been prioritised over people in the evacuation from Afghanistan.

Nigel Casey, the prime minister's special representative for Afghanistan, said the flight was chartered by Nowzad and added that it only left after the UK had finished evacuating people.

At the end of the session Mr Bryant said he had been handed a letter from Ms Harrison, the MP for Copeland, to Nowzad head Mr Farthing.

Reading from it, he said: "The secretary of state for defence has made it clear that all 68 persons will be provided with a flight by the Royal Air Force as part of the evacuation programme.

"The secretary of state has confirmed that animals under the care of Nowzad can be evacuated on a separate, chartered flight. The Ministry of Defence will ensure a flight slot is available."

Mr Bryant said the letter, reportedly sent on 25 August, did not match up with what the civil servants had said during the session.

"My understanding of what you were trying to tell us was that absolutely no priority was given by any minister, nobody got involved, it was all separately arranged like some kind of miracle, but actually 68 members of staff were guaranteed flights on an RAF flight," he said.

"On top of that the prime minister's parliamentary private secretary [Trudy Harrison] is writing to notify Pen Farthing of that... the prime minister's fingers are all over that.

"It feels like a cover up."

The Foreign Office's senior civil servant Sir Philip Barton insisted he had not "set out this afternoon to mislead you" and added he wasn't aware of the letter.

Before the committee hearing, ex-Foreign Office worker Raphael Marshall had told MPs that Mr Johnson had instructed the Foreign Office to evacuate the animals from Afghanistan, prioritising pets over people and putting soldiers at risk.

Animal rights campaigner Dominic Dyer insisted the prime minister was involved, telling the BBC he had contacted the PM's wife, Carrie Johnson, to lobby on the issue and that he had "forced the prime minister's arm".

He also claimed it was "utter nonsense" that evacuating the animals came before people, saying Nowzad was "caught up in the blame game regarding the disastrous departure" [from Kabul].

And ex-marine Mr Farthing tweeted that no British soldiers were employed in the charity's evacuation.

In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Marshall, who was working as a senior desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) until he resigned in September, said there was "extremely limited capacity" at the airport, with thousands of people waiting outside to try and escape.

But despite the pressure, he said his team "received an instruction from the prime minister to use considerable capacity to transport Nowzad's animals".

The charity had chartered its own plane, but Mr Marshall said the issue was a "limited number of soldiers available to bring eligible people into the airport", adding: "There was therefore no justification for concluding that Nowzad's staff were at significant risk.

"By contrast many others would inevitably be left behind who were at risk of murder."