Carrie’s friend Goldsmith says PM NOT involved in efforts to help airlift animal charity from Kabul

Senior ministers defended Boris Johnson today as he faced renewed questions over his role in helping members of an animal charity that lobbied his wife to escape the fall of Afghanistan.

Lord Goldsmith, a Foreign Office minister and friend of Carrie Johnson, last night insisted that he did not discuss efforts to help Paul Farthing and his Nowzad organisation flee Kabul with the Prime Minister.

He appeared to try to apportion blame to senior officials, after it was revealed yesterday that they said the PM was behind efforts to get Mr Farthing, his team and animals, out of the airport as the Taliban closed in. 

Mr Johnson’s position was further weakened last night after it was revealed one of his top political aides tried to hire an aircraft to help get Nowzad out last August.

Trudy Harrison, who was then parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Mr Johnson, contacted a private charter company, with a source at the firm telling the broadcaster it was implicit that she was acting with the PM’s backing.

Ms Harrison previously wrote to Mr Farthing, who ran the Nowzad shelter, to inform him the evacuation would go ahead.

She told Sky News on Wednesday that she had contacted companies, and had told staff she was a PPS to Mr Johnson, but that she was acting as a constituency MP and Mr Johnson was not involved in plans around the evacuation.

Meanwhile Lord Goldsmith, a former MP who was handed a peerage after losing his Richmond Park seat at the 2019 election, also rowed in behind the PM and his wife. 

Emails released yesterday by the Foreign Affairs Committee cited an official in his  office telling an official in his department ‘the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated’.

That official later sent another message to other mandarins, saying: ‘Having regard to the Prime Minister’s Nowzad decision, the Foreign Secretary might consider the [details redacted] vets and their dependents should be included. They might be able to get to the airport with their dependents in time,’ the emails said.

But Goldsmith, a multi-millionaire who loaned his plush Spanish estate to the PM for a controversial holiday last year, said: ‘I did not authorise and do not support anything that would have put animals’ lives ahead of peoples’. 

‘My position, which I made clear publicly, was that the UK should prioritise evacuating people. I never discussed the Nowzad charity or their efforts to evacuate animals with the PM.’

Labour peers have demanded he answer questions on the row in the House of Lords today.

Lord Goldsmith, a Foreign Office minister and friend of Carrie Johnson, last night insisted that the Prime Minister was not involved in efforts to help Paul Farthing and his Nowzad organisation flee Kabul.

Carrie was lobbied personally by members of Nowzad in order to get them and their animals out of Kabul in August

The Prime Minister has previously denied intervening to allow Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing and members of his Nawzad charity flee Kabul at the expense of locals as the extremists closed in last summer.

Trudy Harrison, who was then parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Mr Johnson, contacted a private charter company, with a source at the firm telling Sky it was implicit that she was acting with the PM’s backing.

Labour branded Mr Johnson a ‘pathological liar’ last night, with shadow defence secretary John Healey saying: ‘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.’

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey today insisted Boris Johnson did not make any ‘individual decisions’ on Afghan evacuations despite a leaked email suggesting he had ‘authorised’ the removal of animals from Kabul.

The Work and Pensions Secretary told Sky News: ‘A lot of people will claim that the PM is involved in supporting their particular pet projects but the PM said he wasn’t involved in individual decisions, that is what the Defence Secretary, who was in charge of Operation Pitting overall, has said as well.’

But a Tory critical of the hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan  suggested the emails ‘speak for themselves’ and should be considered alongside other evidence.

Foreign Office emails published yesterday show officials discussing ‘the PM’s decision’ to help Mr Farthing get onto some of the last planes out of the besieged city’s airport.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he ‘can’t really comment in any more detail’ on the messages, which were released by the committee on Wednesday.

‘The emails really speak for themselves and need to be read alongside other evidence,’ he said.

Mr Tugendhat added that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had given evidence that there had been ‘no such order’, and said he believes the minister has ‘always spoken honestly’ on the subject.

‘You’ll have to read the emails and see whether you think that there were others who were working around the system – that I can’t answer,’ he said.

‘But it’s certainly true that the Defence Secretary has been extremely clear on this and I definitely take him at his word.’