BORIS JOHNSON has backed the Foreign Office’s top civil servant after MPs demanded his resignation over “deep failures” during last year’s “disastrous” Kabul airlift. 

The foreign affairs committee published a damning report today, identifying “systemic failures” of planning, intelligence and diplomacy as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

The report was particularly scathing about Sir Philip Barton, who is accused of displaying a “determination to avoid earthing the facts” during its inquiry into the British withdrawal from the country.