The Foreign Affairs Committee publishes written evidence from a second whistleblower, Josie Stewart, Head of Illicit Finance in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Her evidence largely backs that of Raphael Marshall.

The Foreign Affairs Committee will hold an evidence session at 16.00 today with Sir Philip Barton, Permanent Under-Secretary at the FCDO and Nigel Casey, Director of the FCDO’s Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran Directorate.

The whistleblower states that it was “widespread ‘knowledge’ in the FCDO Crisis Centre that the decision on Nowzad’s Afghan staff came from the Prime Minister”. Ms Stewart says that she does not find “credible” Sir Philip’s explanation for having given “inadvertently inaccurate answers” to the Committee about this matter: “I have tried to imagine but cannot conceive of any way this could have been an honest mistake”.

• 7 December 2021: Sir Philip told the Committee that he was “not aware of the decision making” on the Nowzad case.
• 17 January 2022: Sir Philip told the Committee that he had no reason to believe that FCDO staff attributed the decision to the Prime Minister, and that Nigel Casey had not received emails on this matter.
• 26 January: The Committee published an email from a senior official referring to “the PM’s decision” on Nowzad, copied to Nigel Casey.
• 27 January: Sir Philip apologised for “inadvertently inaccurate answers”, stating that Nigel Casey had been busy that day and did not remember the email.
• 27...

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