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A senior Foreign Office whistleblower has accused the department’s top civil servant of misleading MPs over the Afghanistan evacuation.
Josie Stewart, head of illicit finance at the Foreign Office (FCDO), described as “inaccurate” claims made by Sir Philip Barton, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, that he did not know Boris Johnson called for staff at animal charity Nowzad to be evacuated despite others being more of a Taliban target.
She said she will most likely lose the job she loves for calling out the FCDO’s response but said she feels a “strong sense of moral injury for having been part of something so badly managed”.
Ms Stewart, who has been with the FCDO since 2015, including at the embassy in Kabul, gave written evidence to the foreign affairs select committee.
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She said she has come forward to corroborate junior FCDO official Raphael Marshall’s account, which he gave last year, and although she said she does not agree with all of it, she agrees with “the majority of the substance and all of the essence”. She said she had never heard of him before his account.
The senior official’s evidence has been released ahead of MPs on the committee questioning Sir Philip and Nigel Casey, director of the Foreign Office’s Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran directorate, this afternoon.
Among the catalogue of criticisms she has for the department over the evacuation, she said the two men knew Mr Johnson called for staff at Nowzad to be evacuated, despite others being more at risk from the Taliban due to their work for the British government.
There was no prioritisation over which vulnerable Afghans should be evacuated and she has seen “no…
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Source : skynews
