Afghanistan: What happened with Pen Farthing and the animal evacuation - and did Boris Johnson intervene?

Pictures of mothers handing their babies to soldiers as they desperately tried to get them out of Kabul as it fell to the Taliban are etched in many people's minds.

But it was a story about dogs and cats that threatened to take over in August 2021 as Pen Farthing desperately tried to get the dogs his charity Nowzad had rescued, and his staff, out of Afghanistan.

Supporters raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to charter a flight to evacuate them but former marine, Mr Farthing, then accused the Foreign Office of blocking the evacuation flight.

Eventually, Mr Farthing and his animals left Afghanistan on 28 August, two days before the final British evacuation flight as part of Operation Pitting. Some of his staff were not allowed into the airport by the Taliban, despite being granted British visas but made it out through Pakistan.

Read more: PM's assistant 'contacted charter firm to secure plane to evacuate animals from Kabul'

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Controversy at the time

While Mr Farthing had a lot of support as he tried to get the animals and his staff out, there was also major criticism of him and the government's response.

One of the main issues of contention was claims animals' lives were being placed above human lives, with hundreds of Afghans eligible to be evacuated by the British left behind.

The government was accused of allowing British troops to divert their attention from evacuating people to help with getting the dogs out and using up valuable time when humans could have been evacuated.

Mr Farthing was also accused of threatening Defence Secretary Ben Wallace's special adviser, with a leaked voicemail accusing him of blocking the flight and warning he would "destroy" him if he did not approve the flight immediately.

The charity head apologised and said he did that "out of frustration" but denied the other claims, saying his charter flight did not need troops, was paid for privately and was given the go-ahead by the government.

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Did Boris Johnson personally intervene?

At the time, the PM denied he intervened to get the dogs out and on 27 January said it was "total rhubarb" he approved the airlift.

But Dominic Dyer, a friend of Mr Farthing's who co-ordinated the Nowzad evacuation, said he lobbied Mr Johnson's wife, Carrie, who is a friend.

Mr Dyer said he was in no doubt she persuaded her husband to intervene.

Then Raphael Marshall, a former Foreign Office employee involved in Operation Pitting, gave written evidence to parliament that the Foreign Office had "received an instruction" from the PM to use "considerable capacity" to help evacuate the animals.

He also alleged British soldiers were put at risk to help them.

But Mr Farthing denied this, telling the government Mr Marshall's evidence is "unverified" and "nonsense".

Why has the issue raised its head again?

As part of an ongoing inquiry into the Afghanistan evacuation, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee released relevant documents at the end of January 2022.

This included an email to the Foreign Office evacuation team from an official saying Nowzad had "received a lot of publicity" and "the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated".

In December 2021, Mr Johnson said it was "complete nonsense" he had intervened.

One of the newly released documents, from Mr Raphael to the committee, said a colleague told the team "we are doing the dogs" and the PM had issued this instruction in an emergency COBRA meeting or National Security Council meeting.

He also told the committee "several" colleagues messaged on Teams saying the PM had instructed them to "call forward Nowzad's staff for evacuation".

PM's aide 'negotiated Nowzad evacuation with charter company'

Following the release of the latest emails, an employee of a charter plane company told Sky News the PM's parliamentary assistant Trudy Harrison contacted them to try to get a plane to transport Mr Farthing and his dogs out of Kabul.

The employee said Ms Harrison, who is also the MP for Copeland, made clear to the company that she worked for the prime minister - repeatedly referring to "the boss" and the firm felt it was obvious her requests came with the PM's backing.

Ms Harrison confirmed she contacted a number of companies to help the evacuation effort and did say she was the PM's aide but said he was not involved in the plans.