The exchanges took place at the height of the Afghanistan evacuation when Mr Farthing, a former Royal Marine who ran the Nowzad shelter in Kabul, was leading a campaign to evacuate his animals and staff using a private charter plane.
A separate string of emails uncovered by BBC Newsnight, with the subject heading “Pen Farthing and dogs” also showed that the Foreign Office had sought guidance from Downing Street on the issue.
The UK Government sponsored clearance for the charter flight, leading to allegations that animals had been prioritised over people in the rescue effort, with around 150 animals from Mr Farthing’s animal shelter evacuated from Kabul.
Mr Johnson originally denied allegations levelled at the time that he and his wife Carrie Johnson had stepped in to ensure the flight was given clearance to land.
However, after again dismissing the claims last week as “total rhubarb”, Mr Johnson’s denials came under further scrutiny this weekend as new messages between one of Mr Johnson’s parliamentary advisers and an activist seeking to help Mr Farthing were disclosed.
‘Boris wants to fully support’
According to The Sunday Times, Trudy Harrison, the Prime Minister’s principal parliamentary secretary, said she would forward a key document to Mr Johnson’s office directly and “message/call” Carrie Johnson personally as officials in Whitehall expressed their opposition to the mission.
It also reported that, on 22 August, Ms Harrison texted a campaigner who had just confirmed a donor had agreed to fund the rescue of animals to give them guidance on the next steps.
She is said to have messaged: “When [the donor] writes to the PM it would be helpful if he asked for the issuance of the ISAF” – a reference to the authorisation required for a civilian plane to conduct an operation in military airspace.
She added: “Also helpful if you can send me a copy so I can send to his [Mr Johnson’s] Private Office, if possible.”
She then said she would call Mrs Johnson, a contact of the campaigner, to progress the issue, adding: “Can you ask her to call me first, if she doesn’t I’ll message/call her.”
On the same day, the campaigner wrote to another person involved in the operation to say: “Just had confirmation PM’s office Boris [sic] wants to fully support Operation Ark.”
