Dominic Raab has insisted the Government did not put pets before people during the Afghanistan evacuation effort, after a whistleblower made a series of incendiary claims.

       Raphael Marshall, a 25-year-old desk officer, has submitted to the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee a dossier of evidence detailing the dysfunctional and bureaucratic process in the summer.

       Among a series of allegations, he claims Pen Farthing and his staff and rescue dogs were helped despite it being "a direct trade-off" against rescuing at-risk Afghans.

       But Mr Raab, who was then foreign secretary, told Sky News: "That's just not accurate. We did not put the welfare of animals above individuals."

       Asked if these claims were therefore a lie, Mr Raab, who is now Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, said: "I am not accusing anyone of lying. I am just correcting the facts."

       Mr Raab also insisted that Whitehall's working from culture did not leave Afghans in danger - another of the charges levelled by Mr Marshall. He told Sky News: "I regularly checked we were properly resourced", suggesting the whistleblower might have felt "like you were under a lot of pressure" because he was so young.

       This morning Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested the minister could be asked to return to give further evidence before MPs, having already done so in an extraordinary session this summer.

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       Dominic Raab has rubbished criticisms from a "relatively junior desk officer" that as foreign secretary he made decisions slowly during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

       Although Raphael Matthews claimed that he was often left alone, with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s “work-life balance” culture and work-from-home directive fostering a chaotic system, Mr Raab insisted that "the far bigger challenge" was on the ground and that the evacuation had been a relative success.

       The minister told BBC Breakfast: "Of course it was a challenge but far bigger challenge was gleaning the facts on the ground... it was a very difficult set of operational conditions."

       Dominic Raab said he did not recognise whistleblower allegations that junior officials were left to make life or death decisions on the Afghanistan evacuation effort.

       Asked about the claims on Sky News, the former foreign secretary said: "I don't accept that characterisation. I regularly checked that we were properly resourced. But the challenge of course with all of these things was the verification of the facts on the ground."

       Mr Raab, who is now Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, added that he did not think having extra staff in London would have helped.

       He said: "I think the inherent challenge of getting factual questions in relation to undocumented people applying for the three different schemes that were available - that is inherent. I don't think having extra staff in London would have particularly made that easier.

       "The challenge was deciphering the facts on the ground, as well as the second operational challenge, which was making sure we could get to the airport in Kabul, safe passage, given the very difficult conditions there."

       Tom Tugendhat's criticism of the evacuation from Afghanistan is "flawed" and "at odds with the facts", Dominic Raab has said.

       The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee is is conducting an inquiry into the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Raphael Marshall, a 25-year-old desk officer, has submitted a dossier of evidence detailing the dysfunctional and bureaucratic processes followed this summer.

       Last night Mr Tugendhat said: "These failures betrayed our friends and allies and squandered decades of British and Nato effort."

       But Mr Raab, then-foreign secretary, told BBC Breakfast the Foreign Office was "looking at these cases with compassion, with sensitivity", and the success of the operation could be seen "with the fact we got 15,000 people out in just two weeks".

       He added: "The facts speak for themselves... this criticism feels rather dislocated from pressures of the situation."

       Labour's Harriet Harman has announced she will not run again for her Camberwell and Peckham seat in the next general election.

       Ms Harman, who has been the MP for the south London constituency since 1982, said she will leave the House of Commons with her "enthusiasm for politics undimmed".

       Alongside a statement, the Mother of the House wrote on Twitter: "After nearly 40 years in Parliament I won't be standing again at the next election.

       "It's been a great honour to be an MP and to represent Camberwell & Peckham since 1982. I will do that with complete commitment and enthusiasm up until the last day! My email to C & P Lab members."

       Dominic Raab has denied reports that the Government is looking to limiting the powers of the courts.

       Asked if it was true that ministers were considering how to prevent judges from being able to order the Government to follow laws, he said: "No."

       The Justice Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he did not recognise the name of the alleged "interpretation bill", adding: "It is certainly true to say we want to make sure judicial review is balanced... we are saying you shouldn't get a third bite of the cherry [on appeals].

       "I don't think that is stopping courts from scrutiny."

       He added: "I also think people want to see certainty from the law, they don't want to see human rights abused, in particular to immigration decisions. Allowing two opportunities for appeal but not then a third after that just is common sense.

       Dominic Raab has hit out at fellow Conservative Tom Tugendhat, describing him as a "commentator" who is "looking back with the benefit of hindsight".

       Last night Mr Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the allegations were “serious and go to the heart of the failures of leadership around the Afghan disaster”.

       But this criticism was "the luxury of a commentator rather than the politicians who are dealing with the situation on the ground", the former foreign secretary said.

       Asked if Mr Tugendhat was a commentator, Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "He is a politician, Tom is doing..."

       He added: "Some criticism seems rather dislocated from the facts on the ground.. not enough recognition has been given to quite how difficult it was."

       Dominic Raab has said he makes "no apology" for having insisted that information was presented to him “in a well-presented table to make decisions”.

       This is one of several claims made Raphael Marshall, a 25-year-old desk officer, who suggested that it slowed the whole process down.

       "I make no apology for saying i needed the clear facts presented precisely so I can make decisions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "They need to be collated, the key facts drawn out."

       He also defended the fact it took "several hours to make decisions", saying: "That is, I would suggest, a reasonably swift turnaround."

       Dominic Raab has said it is "inaccurate" to have described the Foreign Office as chaotic during the Afghan withdrawal, or that junior officials were left to make decisions without support.

       "The suggestion that junior desk officers were making decisions is just not correct - made ultimately by ministers or senior officials," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

       The former foreign secretary added: "The reason I think this is frankly a mischaracterisation of the pressures is because all the pressures were on the ground in Afghanistan."

       Dominic Raab said he did not believe he was demoted from his former role as foreign secretary over the Afghanistan evacuation effort.

       Asked on Sky News why he thought he lost that role, Mr Raab, who was moved to Justice Secretary, said: "Those are decisions for the Prime Minister, but I am pretty confident from what he said to me that it wasn't in relation to Afghanistan."

       Asked if he lost his job because of the allegations he said: "I don't think that is true, I have done everything I could... These aren’t my calls, I serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister."

       Dominic Raab has insisted he is not accusing the whistleblower of "lying", as he repeatedly insisted Raphael Marshall's claims were wrong.

       The former foreign secretary is under fire this morning, after the 25-year-old desk officer submitted a dossier of evidence detailing the dysfunctional and bureaucratic process behind the operation this summer.

       Mr Raab told Sky News: "The evacuation of 15,000 people, the biggest evacuation in living memory, the only country that got more people out was the US... was a heroic and Herculean effort."

       While he conceded "we would have wanted a longer time-window to get everyone out", the minister insisted: "We did everything we could."

       He added: "I am not accusing anyone of lying, just correcting the facts... We did everything we could but you have to have some form of process otherwise you are not going to let people in who are most in need of your help."

       The former foreign secretary has rejected claims from a whistleblower suggesting only five per cent of Afghan nationals who applied for help to flee the country under one UK scheme received assistance.

       Dominic Raab, who is now Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, told Sky News it was "right" the UK had a process in place to check for those at "genuine risk of persecution" and protect the country from potential threats.

       Asked if he recognised the whistleblower's figures, he said: "I don't. But what is certainly true is that we had a lot of people rushing to get out of Afghanistan for all sorts of reasons.

       "And I think it's right that we had a process in place to check two things: One, that we were helping those at genuine risk of persecution, or British nationals or people who had worked for the British Government. Secondly, making sure that we didn't allow anyone to come into the UK who might present a threat to the UK.

       "And it was important to have a process to make those decisions swiftly but also accurately."

       In 10 days, the UK could have more cases of omicron than some countries it had put on the travel red list, an epidemiologist has said.

       Professor Tim Spector, from the Covid Zoe app, told BBC Breakfast the estimates of just over 350 were probably wrong, putting the actual number at "at least one to two thousand".

       The professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London added: "We are expecting this to be doubling about every two days at the moment, so if you do your maths... you can see that those numbers are going to be pretty (high) certainly in about 10 days time.

       "By that time, we'll probably have more cases than they will in some of those African countries

       "So I think these travel restrictions do perhaps have their place initially, when cases are really low here and really high in the other country, but when we reach that equilibrium, there's very little point in having them in my opinion."

       The Education Secretary has vowed to step up efforts to return 100,000 “ghost” children to school post-lockdown in the wake of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

       Nadhim Zahawi on Monday assured MPs that the Department for Education was working with other agencies to identify and monitor thousands of children who had dropped off the radar during the pandemic.

       It came after Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the Commons education committee, urged Mr Zahawi to “proactively” work with local authorities and schools to ensure vulnerable children “are being watched by those authorities when they need to be watched”.

       Mr Halfon referred to the estimated 100,000 pupils who are still mostly absent from school as “ghost children”, adding that they were “potentially subject to safeguarding hazards, county lines gangs, online harm and, of course, awful domestic abuse”.

       With Covid cases spiking, ministers have gone into overdrive encouraging people to get their booster jabs.

       But those efforts appear to have been in vain, with the operation stalling - and sparking renewed fears about what that means for Christmas.

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