The UK’s national security adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, says he did not consult Downing Street before allowing staff from Paul "Pen" Farthing’s animal charity to be listed for evacuation from Afghanistan in August.
Sir Stephen gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is investigating leaked emails from Foreign Office staff, that suggest the government adviser consulted the prime minister’s office before giving the go-ahead for Nowzad staff to be evacuated in August.
He told the select committee the “actual decision” to call them forward was delegated to officials and military officers who had a “better understanding of the way to maximise the number of people who we could get safely onto those flights”.
“So exactly where those decisions would have been taken, I’m afraid I cannot quite tell you – almost certainly in PJHQ (Permanent Joint Headquarters),” he said.
The parliamentary committee is conducting an inquiry into the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Operation Pitting last summer. Part of their investigation has been looking into whether Mr Farthing, a former Royal Marine who ran the Nowzad animal shelter, was able to fly his staff and animals out of Afghanistan following a direct instruction from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Evidence supplied by whistle-blower Raphael Marshall exposed the Foreign Office’s questionable handling of the crisis in written evidence to the committee in December.
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