BBC Newsnight blunder led to 'Fall of Kabul' whistleblower being sacked from ... trends now
A whistle-blowing government civil servant was sacked after a senior member of the BBC's Newsnight team accidentally revealed her name by posting screenshots of leaked emails showing her name, a tribunal has heard.
Josie Stewart was axed by the Foreign, Commonweath and Development Office after sending the Corporation's flagship news programme a series of damning emails blaming the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson for giving priority to staff working for Kabul animal charity Nowzad, founded by former Royal Marines commando Pen Farthing.
She has agreed to speak out anonymously and sent Newsnight two emails with the subject heading 'Pen Farthing & dogs' which allegedly showed the department and special representative Nigel Casey had sought guidance from No. 10 over whether to evacuate workers for Nowzad ahead of others, including interpreters who had worked with the British Army.
But her cover was blown when a well-respected member of the Newsnight team tweeted uncropped screenshots of the emails on January 27, 2022 and in doing so unwittingly revealed the photos to have come from the inbox of a 'J Stewart'.
Josie Stewart (pictured) was axed by the Foreign, Commonweath and Development Office after sending the Corporation's flagship news programme a series of damning emails
The embarrassing blunder came two years after the programme's now infamous interview with Prince Andrew over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which was trumpeted in hit Netflix film Scoop starring Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell.
Ms Stewart was suspended and later sacked by the FCDO but is now claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds that her whistleblowing was protected under the Employment Rights Act 1996.
In evidence submitted to the Central London Tribunal Centre, Ms Stewart was said to be 'horrified' by the chaos and confusion at the Whitehall crisis centre where she had volunteered to work when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.
She believed 'the government's mismanagement of the crisis caused huge amounts of avoidable suffering in Afghanistan and that it had probably cost lives' and so agreed to speak to the BBC anonymously about these failings.
Ms Stewart leaked the emails to contradict Johnson's claims that he had been involved in the decision to evacuate Nowzad staff and animals as 'complete nonsense'.
She claims the decision came from the Prime Minister and knowledge of this was discussed in the Crisis Centre by senior civil servants and contained in numerous emails she was copied in on, including one from Casey stating that the National Security Adviser would 'seek input from Number 10.'
Britain's evacuation of ex-pats and personnel
