Boris Johnson intervened to evacuate animal charity from Kabul, says whistleblower

Boris Johnson instructed the Foreign Office to evacuate an animal charity from Afghanistan, prioritising pets over people and putting soldiers at risk, a whistleblower has claimed.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban earlier this year, thousands attempted to leave the city.

But Raphael Marshall said soldiers were put in danger to help animal charity Nowzad due to the PM's intervention.

Boris Johnson denied intervening, saying: "No, that's complete nonsense."

A No 10 spokesman said there had been "no instruction from the PM's office" over the charity's evacuation and that the government "prioritised people over animals".

But 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 - saying she would have given him a "hard time about it" - 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".

Ex-marine Pen Farthing, who ran the charity, tweeted that no British soldiers were employed in the charity's evacuation.

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 vociferous campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk "because the Taliban considers companion animals, particularly dogs, unclean".

Around 15,000 people were airlifted out of the country in August, including Mr Farthing and 150 animals - although his 68 staff members were left behind.

In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Marshall said up to 150,000 Afghans who were at risk because of their links to Britain applied to be evacuated and fewer than 5% received any assistance.

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."

He said the Foreign Office team had "eliminated thousands of Afghan friends of the UK at risk of murder from the evacuation lists" because of the lack of capacity, but that space was then used to transport animals, calling it a "direct trade-off".

Mr Marshall added: "I wish the staff of Nowzad all the best in their new life in the UK but they were not eligible for evacuation let alone for exceptional assistance which prioritised them above British Army interpreters.

"I believe that British soldiers were put at risk in order to bring Nowzad's animals into the airport.

"[And the UK government] transported animals which were not at risk of harm at the direct expense of evacuating British nationals and people at risk of imminent murder, including interpreters who had served with the British Army."

But Mr Farthing took to Twitter to claim "not one single British soldier was used to get me or the Nowzad dogs and cats into Kabul airport".

Mr Dyer said the campaign to evacuate Nowzad was a "humanitarian operation" as the team was made up of a large number of young women working as vets and nurses, who were "under real threat".

Downing Street has denied any intervention, but the campaigner insisted the PM did get involved and "for the right reasons", saying the problem was not his influence, but that he "wasn't honest about it".

"The prime minister did intervene. He intervened directly with the home secretary to get people on the priority list to evacuate," he told BBC News.

"They weren't on the top of that list, of course they weren't, but we made it very clear they were at severe risk and he accepted that argument.

Mr Dyer also echoed Mr Farthing's remarks that no British soldiers were used to escort the team or animals, bar "one soldier who let him in the gate".

A No 10 spokesman said government assistance for the charity was limited to giving clearance for Mr Farthing's privately funded charter flight.

He said claims Mrs Johnson had assisted the charity were also "untrue", adding: "Neither the PM nor Mrs Johnson was involved."