8 Wednesday May 25 2022 | the times
News
The top civil servant in the Foreign
Office lacks “integrity and honesty”
and must resign, a senior Conservative
MP has said.
Sir Philip Barton, who earned more
than the prime minister last year, is
heavily criticised in a report by MPs on
the “chaotic” withdrawal from Afghan-
istan last summer. Barton refused to
return from his holiday in the Dor-
dogne during the fall of Kabul. The per-
manent under-secretary at the Foreign
Office is paid a salary of between
£185,000 and £189,999 — about
£25,000 more than Boris Johnson.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative
chairman of the foreign affairs commit-
tee, told Times Radio that Barton had
presided over a “disaster” during the
evacuation of Afghanistan. He said that
the entire Foreign Office leadership
had “failed badly”. Despite having 18
months to prepare for the withdrawal
of US forces, Dominic Raab, then for-
eign secretary, was on holiday with his
family in Crete as the Taliban overran
Afghanistan. Barton refused to return
from southern France until after the
evacuation was complete.
The committee accused the Foreign
Office of being “intentionally evasive”
with its evidence to the inquiry, as
Barton offered vague statements about
Boris Johnson’s involvement in the
decision to evacuate 173 stray dogs and
cats via the Nowzad charity. “We asked
Foreign Office chief
facing calls to resign
the permanent under-secretary, the
head diplomat of the Foreign Office of
the British government, about what
happened and the decisions he took,”
Tugendhat told Times Radio.
“We got answers that led us to believe
we are not getting the integrity and
honesty that we should expect. So
we’ve asked for him to consider his
position and we’ve done so with a very
heavy heart.” No 10 said yesterday that
Barton retained the prime minister’s
full confidence and was not expected to
quit.
Foreign Office staff received an email
on Monday bracing them for the publi-
cation of the highly critical report.
There is anger in Whitehall at the
uncomfortable position that Barton
found himself in at the committee,
where he seemed reluctant to engage in
questions that pointed to political in-
terference in the decision to evacuate
the Nowzad animals.
Johnson previously said it was “com-
plete nonsense” that he had authorised
the airlift, despite Raphael Marshall, a
civil servant turned whistleblower,
producing emails that directly impli-
cated the prime minister.
The foreign affairs committee con-
cluded that there was “no plausible
alternative explanation” other than
that Johnson had made the decision.
The prime minister’s official spokes-
man criticised the report, saying: “We
don’t agree with all of the conclusions
that the committee has drawn on this.”George Grylls Political Reporter
GUY BELL/SHUTTERSTOCK£600,000 bill
for ditched
LGBT event
Geraldine Scott Political ReporterThe government has spent more than
half a million pounds on an LGBT
rights event that it had to cancel in a
row over conversion therapy.
The Safe To Be Me conference,
planned for next month, would have
been the UK’s first international meet-
ing on LGBT rights. It was promised in
the Conservative manifesto.
It was cancelled in April, however,
when trans people were removed from
a ban on conversion therapy.
The ban, also a manifesto pledge, was
dropped in March before being rein-
stated following a backlash. It was in-
cluded in the Queen’s Speech but trans
people were left out due to “complex-
ities and sensitivities”.
The conference was cancelled after
more than 200 campaign groups and
organisations pulled out through an
open letter co-ordinated by the Stone-
wall charity. It could, however, leave the
taxpayer with a hefty bill.
Mike Freer, the equalities minister,
said the final bill for the conference
could be as much as £610,000.
A Stonewall official said: “The con-
ference was a missed opportunity. It is a
shame the government’s actions have
meant resources and time have been
wasted.”
Nick Herbert, the prime minister’s
LGBT adviser, said Stonewall’s letter
was an “act of self-harm”.Grain designs A dancer sweeps grains of rice into intricate pathways in Lee
Mingwei’s performance art piece Our Labyrinth in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall