Emails suggest Boris Johnson authorised Afghan animal rescue despite denials
Source: The Guardian
Emails suggest Boris Johnson authorised Afghan animal rescue despite denials
Foreign Office emails appear to contradict Downing Street denials at the time
Dan Sabbagh
Wed 26 Jan 2022 14.14 GMT
Foreign Office emails appear to contradict Downing Street’s insistence that Boris Johnson did not personally authorise the controversial rescue of cats and dogs from a British animal charity in Afghanistan.
The first of two emails released on Wednesday, from an unnamed Foreign Office official working in the private office of Zac Goldsmith and dated 25 August, lobbies for the rescue of a second animal charity because the prime minister had agreed to evacuate Pen Farthing’s Nowzad charity.
“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,” the official working for Lord Goldsmith writes to another Foreign Office official responsible for collating exceptional cases to be rescued after the Taliban takeover.
A second email, sent between Foreign Office officials in the afternoon of the same day, repeats the point. “In light of the PM’s decision earlier today to evacuate the staff of the Nowzad animal charity, the (animal charity – name redacted) is asking for agreement to the entry of [details redacted] staff, all Afghan nationals.”
Link to tweet
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/26/emails-suggest-boris-johnson-authorised-afghanistan-animal-rescue-despite-denials