Boris Johnson authorised Afghan animal evacuation, leaked email suggests

Boris Johnson authorised the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, according to emails leaked by a whistleblower.

The PM has previously dismissed as "nonsense" claims he intervened in the evacuation of the Nowzad charity, run by former Royal Marine Pen Farthing.

But an email from an official in minister Zac Goldsmith's office suggests he was personally involved.

It is one of a number of emails released by a select committee.

The August 2021 message to another official in the Foreign Office says: "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."

When asked in December if he had prioritised animals over the Afghan people in the evacuation of Kabul, Mr Johnson said: "That is complete nonsense."

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."

And Lord Goldsmith tweeted: "I did not authorise and do not support anything that would have put animals' lives ahead of peoples'.

He added that he had never discussed the Nowzad charity "or their efforts to evacuate animals" with the prime minister.

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

When the Taliban took control of Kabul, 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.

About 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.

The plane evacuating the animals was paid for by donations.

The UK government sponsored clearance for it, leading to allegations that animals had been prioritised over people in the rescue effort.

Raphael Marshall, who worked for the Foreign Office at the time, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the animals were evacuated following a direct instruction from Mr Johnson.

An ally of Mr Farthing, animal rights activist Dominic Dyer, told the BBC he had contacted Mr Johnson's wife Carrie to ask the PM to speak to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace about ensuring Mr Farthing and his animals were evacuated.

Mr Wallace has denied being contacted by the prime minister over the case.

He told the BBC the evacuation of Kabul was "run under my authority and carried out by the UK military through the joint chief of operations".

He added: "At no point were he or I directed by the prime minister to evacuate Pen Farthing, his workforce or his pets.

"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."

He said the suggestion that Lord Goldsmith, who he described as a "Defra minister", would have had "any authority or responsibility in the running of the evacuation is ludicrous".

Lord Goldsmith has been a joint Defra and Foreign Office minister since February 2020.

By Paul Adams, BBC diplomatic correspondent

This story has plagued the government ever since last summer.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace sounds exasperated. He resented being hounded by Pen Farthing's supporters over his perceived reluctance to help evacuate Nowzad's animals.

He also resents the suggestion that he was instructed by the prime minister to put pets before people.

And there's no evidence that he did.

When Mr Wallace tweeted, early on 25 August that "if he [Mr Farthing] arrives with his animals we will seek a slot for his plane," he was not offering any British resources.

In his own submission to the foreign affairs committee, Mr Farthing says: "Let me make this abundantly clear; NO HMG capacity was used to transport any animals. None."

Mr Farthing says he and his animals did not enter Kabul airport through the gate controlled by British soldiers. He also says it was American, not British soldiers, who helped load animals onto a flight that he himself had chartered.

But a mystery remains. Why did an official in the Foreign Office, on 25 August, think that Boris Johnson had "authorised" the evacuation of Nowzad's staff and animals?

It's a question that won't go away.

The evidence published by the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday shows Lord Goldsmith's official in the Foreign Office emailed colleagues working on the "special cases team Bronze", saying: "[animal charity - name redacted] are a [details redacted] animal charity operating in Kabul and seeking to evacuation their [details redacted] members of staff (no animals).

"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."

In a written statement to the committee, Mr Farthing denied any UK government involvement in the evacuation.

He said: "The tremendous teamwork shown by many volunteers to facilitate the evacuation of the Nowzad staff and their families, myself and the animals should be applauded not used as a deflection for failings across the board in Afghanistan."

But Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the leaked emails proved the prime minister had made misleading statements.

"Once again, the prime minister has been caught out lying about what he has been doing and deciding. He should never have given priority to flying animals out of Afghanistan while Afghans who worked for our armed forces were left behind.

"Boris Johnson is unable to make the serious decisions that are needed, at home and for our allies abroad."