DEFENCE secretary Ben Wallace has spoken out about the "people over pets” in the Afghanistan evacuation amid a row.

       Here's what we know about the minister.

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       Defence Sec Ben Wallace Credit: AP Who is Ben Wallace?

       Tory minister Ben Wallace is Secretary of State for Defence since 24 July 2019.

       He was previously the UK's longest-serving Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime from 2016 to 2019.

       He went to public school Millfield in Somerset and then went to military school.

       He fumed that it was "b****cks" that British animal lover Pen Farthing and his Afghan staff were being denied evacuation from Kabul.

       The rattled minister hit back at the former Royal Marine - who wants his animals airlifted out too - and raged: "We have to prioritise people not pets."

       Pen Farthing has chartered a private plane after Boris Johnson granted his 69 staff visas to come to the UK.

       He is offering to take others stuck at the airport and plans to store his critters in the cargo hold.

       But he claims he has since been "cut off" by the British Government and is now holed up "in enemy-held territory".

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       Speaking on a fiery GMB from Kabul, the animal sanctuary owner said: "We're not asking for anything, we're not going to take the place of people - we're actually going to put more people than we have on the flight to get them out of this desperate situation."

       Holding up his dog Ewok for the camera, he added: "He's going in the cargo hold. People don't go in the cargo hold.

       "So if I don't take these animals then that flight will take off with an empty cargo hold and I'll have to put all these animals to sleep.

       Who is Ben Wallace's wife Liza Cooke?

       He married Liza Cooke in 2001, she worked as a part-time parliamentary assistant in his office until 30 April 2019.

       They met when she was a researcher in the Scottish Parliament and Wallace was a MSP.

       They live in Lancashire and in London.

       They have three children.