The Foreign Office's top civil servant has said a second whistleblower's claim that Boris Johnson was directly involved in the decision to evacuate Nowzad charity staff was based on an "assumption" by an official at the time.
Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, Sir Philip Barton, told MPs on the influential Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that one of the department's officials had mistakenly attributed the Nowzad decision to colleagues as being made by the prime minister, which may have caused others to remember events in such a way.
Earlier this morning, a senior Foreign Office whistleblower accused the department's top civil servant of misleading MPs over the Afghanistan evacuation.
Whistleblower accuses top civil servant of misleading MPs
Josie Stewart, head of illicit finance at the Foreign Office (FCDO), described as "inaccurate" claims made by Sir Philip that he did not know Mr Johnson called for staff at animal charity Nowzad to be evacuated despite others being more of a Taliban target.
Ms Stewart said it was "widespread knowledge" in the FCDO's crisis centre - and she saw "numerous emails" - that the decision to allow Nowzad's Afghan staff to be evacuated was taken after the PM said they should be - despite officials saying they were not eligible and others were more at risk from the Taliban.
Read more: Eight key accusations made by Afghanistan whistleblower in 2021
Ms Stewart, who has been with the FCDO since 2015, including at the...
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