A leaked letter suggests Boris Johnson and the Foreign Office may have covered up the prime minister’s involvement in airlifting more than 150 dogs and cats from Afghanistan, a senior MP has said.
On Tuesday it emerged that the charity worker Pen Farthing received a letter from Johnson’s parliamentary secretary saying Farthing, his staff and the animals could be rescued from Kabul amid the Taliban takeover in August, when thousands of Afghans with UK connections were also trying to flee.
Amid the desperate mission to evacuate Afghans to Britain after the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, the British defence minister has become embroiled in a bitter row over the plight of a former soldier and his animal rescue charity.
Former Royal Marine Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing has been seeking to leave Afghanistan with the staff of his Nowzad charity and the scores of dogs and cats for which they cared.
An animal welfare campaigner said the prime minister did “intervene” to help get a charity’s animals and staff out of Afghanistan in the summer.
Dominic Dyer said he “forced the prime minister’s arm” over authorising a flight into Kabul Airport to get people and animals moved to the UK, as western troops left Afghanistan at short notice.
He added there was “no doubt Carrie Johnson gave him (the PM) a hard time” as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace appeared to change his mind over helping Pen Farthing with the Operation Ark evacuation.
