Doubts over allegations No. 10 about the airlift clearance message for dogs outside Kabul | Boris Johnson

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Allies of animal charity chief Ben Farthing and a Labor MP have cast doubt on Downing Street’s allegations over a letter from Boris Johnson’s parliamentary aide, Trudy Harrison, giving him permission to evacuate from Kabul in August.

No 10 said Harrison was “acting as a constituency representative” when she wrote the letter – continuing to insist that Boris Johnson did not order the rescue of Farthing and his cats and dogs before the desperate Afghans.

But Dominic Dyer, an animal rights activist who lobbies to help Farthing, said on Wednesday that neither he nor Farthing was a component of Harrison but she got involved in their campaign after some of her constituents raised her.

“In my view, Trudy has been in contact with the prime minister. I understood the prime minister was committed to the process and saw it happen,” said Dyer, who has been lobbying hard on the government over Farthing in late August.

The pen needed something he could carry at the Kabul airport. To be fair to Trudy, she did a good job, and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” I don’t know if she passed it on to Johnson, but I can’t believe he didn’t know it was written. I can’t believe he wasn’t aware that we tied loose limbs.”

Harrison’s letter, which appeared Tuesday night, is dated August 25 and signed by her as Copeland’s deputy in Cumbria and “Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister”.

She explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense – which lodged objections at the last minute – cleared the way for Farthing and his charity workers at Nowzad to evacuate Kabul airport. “You are then authorized to move forward,” she wrote.

Dyer said he believed the letter was “not a letter from the average Member of Parliament”. He said, “This was requested because Ben did not want to rely on emails from the State Department. He was there to show that he and his staff had the legal right to leave.”

However, Harrison said the letter, which is titled House of Commons, “was sent on Parliamentary Paper to confirm that the appropriate security clearance had been submitted”. She added, “While I was already Deputy Prime Minister, that wasn’t the case for him. It was a routine assignment in response to requests from many Copeland constituents for help.”

Chris Bryant, a Labor member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee who raised the issue earlier this week, said he was skeptical of No. 10 and Harrison’s explanations. “I just don’t buy it. It all seems so comforting and mysterious. It’s still clear to me that the Prime Minister actually, if not directly, ordered this eviction. He just doesn’t want his fingerprints on it.”

Tory MPs contacted by the Guardian said it was unusual to refer to her role as Johnson’s assistant in the House of Commons if she did not intend to suggest she had the prime minister’s backing. Party sources said there had been concern about what they believed to be an approach to prioritizing “animals over Afghans” in recent days in Kabul.

Farthing and more than 150 cats and dogs were rescued on one of the last flights from Kabul, but a last-minute delay at the airport means more than 60 Nawzad Charity employees and their dependents had to cross the border into Pakistan before they could get there. United kingdom. “This has always been a broader humanitarian mission,” Dyer said.

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