and did not approve of what, to a degree, we were seeking to do. and i think sought to delay it, including the flight approval to get the plane on the ground. it took the prime minister to unlock that process. you don t have ministers working across whitehall as they were without approval of the highest level of government. this was not a rogue operation appearing out of nowhere, it took a lot of time to put together and a lot of work went on. i m grateful to everyone involved. but this idea that it took away from other parts of the evacuation process is ridiculous. the plane was privately funded, the animals went in the hold. pen tried to get his people into the airport but the taliban didn t allow him to do so. he took them out by a land corridor two weeks later, and the foreign secretary welcomed them into pakistan, and then facilitated through embassy officials their entry into the uk. pictures being shared today by pen of the children evacuated going to school, and that s the most