A civil servant who blew the whistle on the UK’s handling of its withdrawal from Afghanistan has won a case for unfair dismissal against the Foreign Office.
Josie Stewart was dismissed in 2022 from her post in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) after she raised concerns that the government was mishandling the evacuation of Kabul.
Stewart gave an anonymous interview to the BBC Newsnight programme after a junior colleague reached out to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee with evidence of the FCDO’s failings.
These disclosures related to the government’s handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, and subsequent denial by the prime minister and other senior ministers, so she deemed them to be in the public interest.
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The information included evidence suggesting that Boris Johnson had prioritised evacuating staff from an animal charity over more deserving cases.
However, the BBC accidentally revealed her identity by publishing unredacted emails and she was stripped of her security clearance and subsequently dismissed.
At the tribunal hearing in May 2024, the FCDO argued that the right to whistleblow in the public interest did not extend to civil servants who leaked information.
Her barrister Gavin Millar KC responded by saying that this argument, if successful, would “drive a...
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