Pen Farthing on ‘voicemail’, ‘Biden’s Paperwork changes’ and ‘Pets before People’

Following on from the alleged leaked Ministry of Defence recording by Pen Farthing over the weekend, Pen spoke to Good Morning Britain this morning live from Oslo and admitted his mistake.

Speaking with hosts Charlotte Hawkins and Sean Fletcher, Pen revealed:

“I’m going to have to say now so that everyone knows, I’m incredibly embarrassed about my language. I do apologize to everyone who has listened to that. I was at the lowest point I could possibly be. I understand how the world works, but emotion got the better of me… I should not have said it like that, but the sentiment – yes. I was just incredibly upset, angry, frustrated… I had no other option, I didn’t know what else to do. So that’s why you’ve probably heard some colourful language.”

On who he thinks is responsible for the leak, Pen said: “I have no idea. Maybe the government needs to check it’s policy for private voicemail, because obviously, it’s not secure if it’s managing to find its way into social media… To be absolutely honest, it’s not a concern of mine. My only concern now is the people that I had to leave behind because the paperwork was wrong. So somehow – and I don’t know how – our mission is not finished, we are going to get them to safety.

“If somebody wants to play silly games and leak voicemails that I’ve sent to somebody in the heat of the moment, then they clearly don’t understand the situation that I was in…. I’m not into playing silly games… I just want to apologize for my language, I shouldn’t have done that but I’ve got bigger things to do getting the staff to safety.”

He also explained what it was actually like on the flight that got him out of Kabul: “It was very mixed emotions, to be honest. As Kaisa said, getting the animals out was part of the mission but it wasn’t the whole mission. The fact that I’d got the staff into that airport and then we’d been turned around because we didn’t have the correct paperwork, because the rules had changed just two hours before, was absolutely heartbreaking. To be turned around at gunpoint by the Taliban and be forced back out into the streets – especially in the aftermath of that absolutely horrendous bombing. I’m happy we got the animals out…

“As we left the airport we were tear gassed. By the time we got back to our base – it was probably a good hour or so since we had been forced out of the airport – everybody was just crying and sad, in shock really and that’s when the staff came up to me and they were saying, ‘Look, you’ve got to leave. Get these animals out of here. We’ll try another way.’ That’s when the realisation came in that if I stayed any longer now, I’m just going to put them in more danger by being there and it’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life. But I realised there was no way I could get them into that airport now.”

“Whilst the British government had obviously given them the correct paperwork, Joe Biden – because the Americans control the airport – Joe Biden had actually changed the rules on who could enter, so it overruled the paperwork we were given by the British. It was just absolutely, totally heartbreaking.”

“Sadly on that flight out of there it was just me. I asked the British again, ‘Would you like to add some people onto this flight?’ They reassured me that they had enough capacity to get the people they needed to get out and they thanked me for the offer and said, ‘No, it’s all yours.’ There were several empty seats on that flight out there…  Remember, I was probably the last person to enter that airport. It was closed. The Americans, the British had obviously stopped taking people in, because there had to be a point where they stopped…

“I’m not sure of the situation inside the airport, I’m hoping they got everyone out who needed to get out. Obviously, Americans are still there. I had no contact with the American administration running the airport, I was only talking to the British side of things.”

On accusations that pets were put before people, Pen remained firm: “Firstly let’s make this absolutely crystal clear, because I am getting sick to death of explaining this. There’s a cargo hold, you can’t put people in a cargo hold… The animals went into the cargo hold.

“Nobody, nobody in the British government facilitated my entry into the airport. I did that with the Taliban. I came up to the British checkpoint, that was the first time – and this was well into the airport, the Taliban and the British are stood there. There’s some barbed wire separating them, or there was, obviously it’s not there anymore. That was the first time I spoke to any British people.

“So whoever is making any accusations or comments, needs to actually have been stood there on the ground to see how I got into that airport. Nobody facilitated my entry above any interpreters or anyone else. There was me and a truck full of cats and dogs… I don’t know how many different Taliban commanders I had to sit and speak to.

“Obviously this evacuation was forced onto the British by the Americans, that’s 100% obvious and people would have to be left behind, because there just wasn’t enough time to get the people out who needed to get out. There were people out on the street who had British passports. I could not get them into that airport, I tried. The Taliban would only let me go, because I was just an obvious Westerner. These other people were of Afghan descent but had British passports and there was no one outside that airport able to obviously deal with the Taliban…

However, Penn also understood some of the negative feelings towards him and his mission: “I understand that people are upset and they probably are saying these types of comments because they don’t understand the situation on the ground because they weren’t there. People always make comments about things they actually have no knowledge of, because they’re upset and I get that. I’m upset that people were left behind but I could not do anything different…”

He then went on to discuss what happens next: “We’re considering plans now of what we can do, but I’m not going to say because I have no idea who is watching this news item. We have got a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet. We’ll see how the situation unfolds in the next day or so once the Americans do leave.

“That’s why I’m not sat here with a smile on my face, because of the staff I had to leave behind because of paperwork. Can you believe that? In a warzone and the paperwork was wrong, but the people were on the right side of the fence.”

“The Taliban know who they are, they’re probably fairly high up the news item agenda list. So yeah, I believe they truly are now [in danger]. We’re playing it day by day and we’ll see what we can do.”

Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV and ITV Hub