'We have betrayed so many people and then told them that animals matter more': Kirstie Allsopp wades into Pen Farthing pet rescue row in lengthy Twitter rant
- Broadcaster says it's a 'betrayal' that people were left behind after evacuation
- Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing succeeded in evacuating dogs and cats to UK
- Allsopp claimed Britain has effectively told Afghans that 'animals matter more'
- Says she is 'concerned many Brits feel more empathy for animals than humans'.
Kirstie Allsopp has said dogs never 'come close to being as valuable as a human life' as she hit out at the evacuation of 150 animals from Afghanistan.
The TV property broadcaster, who has a border terrier named Dandy, said it was a 'betrayal' that men, women and children had been left behind after the evacuation.
She spoke out after former Royal Marine Paul 'Pen' Farthing succeeded in evacuating dogs and cats to Britain from an animal shelter in Kabul over the weekend.
Allsopp claimed the UK had effectively told Afghans that 'animals matter more' and said she was 'concerned many Brits feel more empathy for animals than humans'.
Mr Farthing's campaign to get his animals to safety has become hugely topical over the past fortnight, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace complaining it was distracting from the focus on evacuating the most vulnerable out of Afghanistan.
Pen Farthing, pictured with his wife Kaisa Markhus after they were reunited in Oslo, Norway
Mr Farthing and his wife Kaisa were allowed to meet but not to touch due to quarantine rules
Kirstie Allsopp, who was a border terrier named Dandy, is pictured on ITV's Daybreak in 2013
Allowed to meet, but not touch, due to quarantine rules after Mr Farthing's return from Kabul
In a series of tweets yesterday, Allsopp said Mr Farthing was 'a symptom of the British obsession with pets over people and the betrayal those left behind will feel'.
She told how her mother, the late interior decorator Fiona Hindlip, used to say the UK was the 'only country where you can admit to preferring your dogs to your children'.
Allsopp, 50, who is a mother-of-four, added: 'If I were left in Afghanistan, or were trying to get a member of my family out, I simply could not conceive how we could get dogs and cats on a plane to the UK but not humans.
'We have betrayed and let down so many people and then told them straight up that animals matter more.'
She continued: 'Imagine how you would feel seeing those animals gain access to the airport while you still waited in a sewage ditch with your exhausted and terrified children.'
Allsopp also tweeted: 'I adore my dog. I do not, for one single second, think my dog comes close to being as valuable as a human life. I would swap my dog for a human life, and I mean any human life, not just my family and friends.'
It comes as Mr Farthing was criticised after leaving an expletive-laden message for a Government aide amid the evacuation of the dogs and cats from Afghanistan.
He said he was 'not worried about what some politician is saying about me'.
Mr Farthing had apologised after a recording, obtained by The Times, captured him berating Peter Quentin, a special adviser to Mr Wallace, and accusing the staffer of 'blocking' efforts to arrange the evacuation flight.
Following the privately funded charter flight's arrival at London's Heathrow Airport Mr Farthing, who was speaking from Oslo, told ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday he was 'incredibly embarrassed about my language' in the voicemail.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, he repeated his apology but appeared to shift the focus back to the Government and its allies' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He said: 'I've apologised for the language I used but that's it.
'I'm not worried about what some politician is saying about me. That's not on my radar. What's on my radar is that this ill-thought out withdrawal has destroyed a country overnight and cost countless lives.'
Mr Farthing had said he was still working to help evacuate 68 Nowzad animal shelter staff and family members, including 25 children and one new-born baby, from Afghanistan as part of his Operation Ark campaign.
The campaign became a hot topic on social media, with Mr Wallace saying some of Mr Farthing's more militant supporters had 'taken up too much time' of senior commanders.
It comes as Dominic Raab denied claims that he did not speak to ministers in Afghanistan and Pakistan for months ahead of the evacuation crisis, describing them as 'not credible and deeply irresponsible'.
The Sunday Times reported that the Foreign Secretary had 'shown no interest' in taking calls from either country's government in the six months before the evacuation.
The newspaper cited an unnamed Pakistani official, who said Mr Raab had thought of Afghanistan as 'yesterday's war'.
Today, Mr Raab hit back at the claims, and said there had been a 'team effort' across the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to communicate with the two countries.
Mr Raab told Sky News: 'Anyone that is toddling off to the Sunday Times or any other newspaper at a time of crisis, including the evacuation which has been two weeks running, giving buck-passing briefings either at me or the FCDO is, frankly, not credible and it is deeply irresponsible.'
The Cabinet minister added that he had spoken to Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi 'more intensively given the evacuation' and defended the Foreign Office's record in Afghanistan, because it has supported the evacuation of 17,000 people since April.
However, he was unable to name any time before the last few weeks in which he had spoken to ministers from either Pakistan or Afghanistan.
He told LBC: 'I can't tell you my precise call sheet for the last six months.'
But he said he was part of a 'team of ministers' and delegated phone calls to colleagues, including Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, who had led the UK's relationship with the Afghan government.
Mr Raab added: 'It is right that you have delegation, a division of labour, if you are going to operate effectively as a team. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not done a job like this.'
The Foreign Office told the Sunday Times that Mr Raab had spoken to Pakistani minister Mr Qureshi on August 22 and August 27, but could not cite any earlier conversations between the two men in the last six months.
It instead said that Lord Ahmad was responsible for communicating with Pakistan and Afghanistan as the minister for South Asia.
Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing's campaign has become hugely topical on social media
British citizens and dual nationals boarding a military plane at Kabul Airport on August 16
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith described criticism of Mr Raab's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan as 'childish and pathetic'.
Speaking on LBC, Sir Iain said: 'A lot of the briefing against Dominic Raab is rather childish and pathetic, during the course of a crisis where you want this thing settled.
'You don't want to have a debate about whether somebody should be there or not there, as long as they're doing their job and you want them to get on with that job.'
Mr Raab faced criticism for not returning early from his holiday in Crete earlier this month, as Kabul was seized by the Taliban.
The Foreign Secretary has said that 'with hindsight' he would have abandoned his holiday sooner.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtOTk0Mjc3OS9LaXJzdGllLUFsbHNvcHAtd2FkZXMtUGVuLUZhcnRoaW5nLXBldC1yZXNjdWUtcm93Lmh0bWzSAWtodHRwczovL3d3dy5kYWlseW1haWwuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlLTk5NDI3NzkvYW1wL0tpcnN0aWUtQWxsc29wcC13YWRlcy1QZW4tRmFydGhpbmctcGV0LXJlc2N1ZS1yb3cuaHRtbA?oc=5
2021-08-31 09:10:51Z
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