The Afghan data leak was “bound to happen” after ministers ignored warnings about the UK’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Foreign Office whistleblower has said.
Three years ago, in July 2022 Josie Stewart, 44, a career diplomat, lost her job after giving an anonymous interview to BBC Newsnight, raising the alarm over the government’s handling of the crisis.
But speaking to The Telegraph after one of the most damaging leaks in British history, she said the scenario was precisely one she had been trying to prevent.
Ms Stewart, who was one of only two civil servants to go public with their concerns in 2021, said: “To some extent it is an endorsement of the fact that we were right – the government’s chaotic handling of the Afghanistan evacuation was risking lives.
“But it also brings the realisation that we did all of this in terms of speaking out – in different ways, we both lost our careers because of it – and it didn’t change anything. The chaotic management continued, and the suppressed facts continued – and got worse. So much for accountability.”
The other civil servant, Raphael Marshall, resigned after a week working on the Afghan Special Cases team, which was helping eligible Afghans at risk because of their UK ties to get evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover.
He claimed desperate emails went unread, junior staff with no regional expertise were assigned to complex cases, and the prime minister prioritised animals over people at the “direct...
Welcome to Reality Check, a newsletter that helps you keep track of the false claims and online conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. If you think exposing distortions a...