A Good Morning Britain presenter has hit out at Boris Johnson 's government for not doing their jobs in helping Pen Farthing's colleagues in Afghanistan.
Sean Fletcher took aim at the efforts by the government during the evacuation process.
During the GMB show on Monday hosts Fletcher and Charlotte Hawkins spoke with guests Kevin Maguire, the Daily Mirror’s Associate Editor, and broadcaster Nana Akua.
The four spoke about the evacuation of the former Royal Marine who eventually managed to get his cats and dogs out from the Nowzad animal shelter in the capital Kabul.
Farthing, who is in quarantine in Norway, praised the work of staff at London Heathrow for handling the animals after they arrived back in the UK.
Unfortunately, Farthing's staff members from the animal home were left in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Farthing tweeted: "Arrived Heathrow with partial success of #OpArk.
"Mixed emotions & true deep feeling of sadness for Afghan today. Heathrow Ops centre, Border Force, HARC & Air Pets were all bloody amazing. Witnessed 1st hand the compassion Heathrow is showing Afghan refugees."
Maguire was critical of Farthing’s prioritising of animals over human evacuations and cited similar criticism from Farthing’s fellow Royal Marine veterans.
He said: "There is almost unanimous criticism of him for what he’s done."
Fletcher interrupted, he said: "Can we just highlight that the government haven’t done their job? The government are meant to work with people who helped us for 20 years and they still do their job.
"He’s done his job because he’s worked for his charity."
Maguire replied: "He’s brought out his cats and dogs but he hasn’t brought out his staff."
During the conversation Akua said: "It’s a shame that the government couldn’t have been more like that as well.
Newsreader Pip Tomson noted that it was a private charter aircraft and not a military plane that took the animals out of Afghanistan, but Maguire said the effort and manpower that went into the flight made the criticisms of Farthing’s decisions to be valid.
Fletcher added that the animals were not taking up seats on the planes that could have been occupied by people.
Maguire, however, noted that the effort and manpower that went into the flight made the criticisms of Farthing’s decisions to be valid.
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