Have any lessons been learnt from the Pen Farthing debacle?

Partygate is inevitably dominating in Westminster today – and will do so again tomorrow when the Gray report is likely to be published. But the attention on partygate should not obscure today’s Foreign Affairs select committee report on the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is devastating, and should lead to a period of deep reflection in King Charles Street – and across Whitehall – of how badly things went wrong.

There are many shocking things in the report. But perhaps the most shocking is how the UK government failed to plan for the withdrawal – despite the fact it knew it was coming because US policy was not going to change. When it became clear the situation was deteriorating even more rapidly than expected, and this lack of planning was exposed, the Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton stayed on holiday in Crete as the Afghan government collapsed.

Then, there is the issue of Nowzad and the evacuation of its animals. It is bizarre, and worrying, that the Foreign Office cannot offer a coherent explanation of why moving these animals out of the country was considered so important, and who authorised it being treated as such. The fact that Pen Farthing was the only human passenger on a 230-seat plane is morally obscene considering how many Afghans, in danger because of their support to the British mission, were left behind.

The nature of the Afghan withdrawal shames our country: it was more scuttle than orderly evacuation. It could, and should, have been handled so much better. But the caginess of so many senior figures in their evidence to the committee means that it is hard to believe that lessons have been learned from this debacle.