A former Foreign Office civil servant and whistleblower who won her case for unfair dismissal this week has said she hopes to return to a role in government.
Josie Stewart, who had her security clearance revoked and then lost her job after blowing the whistle on failures during the evacuation of Kabul, expressed her desire to return to the civil service following her tribunal win.
Speaking to The Guardian, the former official said: “I loved being a civil servant and still think I have a lot to contribute.”
She added: “I know the vast majority of my former colleagues feel positively about this outcome and I could certainly work with them again,” she said.
In the first case of its kind, the employment tribunal ruled that under whistleblower protection legislation, it can be lawful for a civil servant to share unauthorised information directly with the media.
Stewart said she has been “overwhelmed with messages of support and gratitude” from civil servants and that the outcome was the “culmination of years of stress and trauma”.
The employment tribunal found that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had unlawfully removed Stewart’s security clearances and unfairly dismissed her in 2022 after she told the BBC's Newsnight programme about the department’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis.
It said the FCDO had at no point considered Stewart’s case that she had made protected disclosures and so should be regarded as a "whistleblower".
It also said there was little real enquiry into whether Stewart could fill one of the exceptional roles within the FCDO where security clearance was not required or whether the department could assist her with finding a role elsewhere within the civil service.