Ms Stewart’s security clearance was revoked and she subsequently lost her job after it emerged she revealed failings in the withdrawal from Kabul, as well as leaking emails suggesting that former prime minister Boris Johnson had prioritised staff from the animal charity Nowzad for evacuation over more deserving cases.
In submissions to the panel, Mr Millar said that Ms Stewart’s whistleblowing related to “the endangerment of the safety and lives of extremely vulnerable people in danger of retribution from the Taliban at any moment, and a government communications strategy which concealed how badly the UK government let those people down”.
Josie Stewart, a former senior official who had worked at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for seven years, lost her job after giving an anonymous interview to BBC Newsnight which saw her speak about her “traumatic experiences” working in the Afghanistan Crisis Centre in summer 2021.
But Gavin Millar KC, the barrister acting for Ms Stewart, said such an argument would “drive a coach and horses through” the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, aimed at protecting whistleblowers, if it succeeded.
A landmark judgment issued on Tuesday said: “The tribunal considered that it was reasonable for the claimant to go to the UK’s public service broadcaster when relevant information and/or allegations had already been put into the public domain … and government ministers were publicly disputing them.”.
