A former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul made it through the airport’s security with his pets on Friday night and was awaiting a flight out of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

       After days of uncertainty, Paul “Pen” Farthing, the founder of the Nowzad charity, was on Friday given clearance for a private chartered flight to evacuate him and almost 200 dogs and cats to Britain.

       However, the status of his staff and their dependents, who have been given visas to come to the UK, was unknown, with friends suggesting earlier in the day that their access to the airport risked being blocked by the Taliban.

       In a statement confirming the evacuation had been given the green light, the MoD said: “On the direction of the Defence Secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK Government.

       “Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK Armed Forces. They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.”

       The announcement came just hours after Mr Farthing said his team had managed to enter the airport on Thursday but had later been forced to turn back because the US, which controls the runway, had changed its paper requirements.

       “Went through hell to get there and we were turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions,” he wrote on Twitter.

       The update follows days of fighting between supporters of Mr Farthing and Ben Wallace, who has accused those involved in his campaign, known as Operation Ark, of “bullying, falsehoods and threatening behaviour” towards MoD staff.

       Although visas were granted for his 24 staff and their dependents, Mr Farthing refused to leave without his pets.

       The standoff led to a growing social media campaign calling for the UK Government to provide assistance.

       While Mr Wallace later confirmed that he would attempt to facilitate the chartered flight, he complained to MPs that the controversy had diverted resources on the ground away from saving people more in need of rescue.

       On Friday night defence sources told The Telegraph: “Pen has had no preference, no queue jump and there was no u-turn. The Defence Secretary always said we would facilitate a flight. If he had done this last Friday, then none of this would have happened.”