Trudy Harrison, the prime minister's parliamentary private secretary (PPS), contacted the firm on 25 August - a few days before the operation to get Britons and eligible Afghans out of Kabul concluded - according to a charter employee who worked with her on the matter.
According
to recent news, Boris Johnson's parliamentary assistant contacted a private
charter company in the hope of securing a plane to transport animals and staff
during the evacuation of Afghanistan, telling them that her boss was keen.
The
employee said Ms Harrison, who is also the MP for Copeland, made clear to the
company that she worked for the prime minister - repeatedly referring to
"the boss".
The
charter flight firm felt it was obvious her requests came with the prime minister's
backing.
Ms
Harrison was also keen to ensure members of the media were on the plane to
watch the animals being evacuated to turn it into a good news story, the source
at the company said.
When
approached by Sky News, the MP confirmed that she did contact a number of
companies to help with the evacuation effort "as a constituency MP" -
however, none of her constituents were directly involved.
Ms
Harrison admits she did tell staff she was PPS to the prime minister, but
states Mr Johnson was not involved in any plans around evacuation.
"I
was in touch with a whole raft of people and companies, there was a real focus
on trying to be as helpful as possible in enabling organisations to understand
government procedures and that's the case here," she told Sky News.
"I
did this as a constituency MP at all times, but I am the prime minister's PPS
so I will have made that clear.
"I
had no conversations with the prime minister at any time about encouraging him
to authorise or support in any way Pen Farthing and the team.
"I
did speak to Ben Wallace and Ben told me in no uncertain terms that it was not
possible to prioritise in this situation."
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