A civil servant who blew the whistle on the UK’s handling of its withdrawal from Afghanistan has won a case for unfair dismissal against the Foreign Office.
Josie Stewart was dismissed in 2022 from her post in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) after she raised concerns that the government was mishandling the evacuation of Kabul.
Stewart gave an anonymous interview to the BBC Newsnight programme after a junior colleague reached out to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee with evidence of the FCDO’s failings.
These disclosures related to the government’s handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, and subsequent denial by the prime minister and other senior ministers, so she deemed them to be in the public interest.
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The information included evidence suggesting that Boris Johnson had prioritised evacuating staff from an animal charity over more deserving cases.
However, the BBC accidentally revealed her identity by publishing unredacted emails and she was stripped of her security clearance and subsequently dismissed.
At the tribunal hearing in May 2024, the FCDO argued that the right to whistleblow in the public interest did not extend to civil servants who leaked information.
Her barrister Gavin Millar KC responded by saying that this argument, if successful, would “drive a coach and horses” through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which protects whistleblowers.
A preliminary hearing in 2023 looked at whether the FCDO could restrict public access to the proceedings and whether witness evidence would be covered by parliamentary privilege and therefore inadmissible, but the tribunal was allowed to proceed.
The tribunal has now published its judgment in the case, upholding Stewart’s claim that her disclosures were in the public interest, and backing her claim for unfair dismissal.
“The prime minister and foreign secretary were denying things that the claimant believed to be true, based on what she had observed in the course of her work,” it said.
Stewart’s law firm James & West Law believes this to be the first time an employment tribunal has ruled it to be lawful for a civil servant to share unauthorised information directly with the media.
Her solicitor Cathy James said the ruling was “an important win not just for Ms Stewart, but for civil servants, the public interest, and democracy”.
Stewart said her experience of working in the FCDO at the time of the evacuation “reflected the worst of our political system”.
“The outcome of this case doesn’t change any of this, but it has achieved what I set out to achieve: it has established that civil servants have the right not to stay silent when systemic failures put lives at risk, as happened during the Afghan evacuation.
“I hope that, knowing that their colleagues have this right, senior officials will do more to build accountability in government and speak truth to power when it is needed.
“We can’t have a system that says stay silent, no matter what you see, and forces dedicated public servants to choose between their conscience and their career.”
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