ANGRY peers called on UK ministers to "live in the same world as the rest of us" over the latest Boris Johnson allegations.

The House of Lords has heard calls to toughen up rules for ministers after Johnson denied involvement in the airlift of animals from Afghanistan.

Internal Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) emails say the PM "authorised" the evacuation of cats and dogs from Kabul in August.

Peers have now called on Tory Lord Zac Goldsmith — who is also an FCDO minister — to explain himself after he'd told them Johnson was not involved.

And there's a call to put the ministerial code "on a firmer statutory basis" to regain public trust.

LibDem Lord Wallace of Saltaire said: "We have another scandal here, another apparent contradiction between what one minister has said and what is on the official record which needs to be cleared up.

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"We have a ministerial code which is effectively policed by a prime minister who has now lost public trust.

"Could not the Government begin to regain public trust by accepting recommendations from the Committee on Standards of Public Life that the ministerial code should be placed on a firmer statutory basis?"

And ex-Kilmarnock and Loudon MP Lord Browne of Ladyton said: "When are we going to get to the point where ministers here or in television studios will live in the same world the rest of us do when all the evidence proves the contrary to what they're saying?"

The leaked email came from Goldsmith's office but in December he told the House of Lords that the PM had not been involved in the Nowzad animal charity evacuation.

Goldsmith was not present in the Lords yesterday as Labour peer Ray Collins raised the matter in an urgent question, calling on him to "return as a matter of urgency to make a statement".

A Foreign Office email published on Wednesday showed that an official working for Goldsmith wrote to a colleague on August 25 and said "the PM has just authorised" action on behalf of Nowzad.

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Similar claims had been made before but on December 7 Goldsmith told the Lords that previous denials of involvement by Johnson were "entirely accurate".

Collins said: "Only one of these two statements can be true. Which is it?"

His Labour colleague Browne stated: "Once again we've been treated to ministers in studios and in the House not facing up to the fact that the evidence is out.

"I mean, these emails are there for people to see. I have not had one minister who has denied that the Nowzad animals were helped out of Afghanistan by Lord Goldsmith and the Prime Minister and possibly also by the intervention of his wife, actually say 'these emails are not correct'. The evidence is there."

Cabinet Office minister Nicholas True said "allegations do not constitute proof".

He told the House: "Statements have been made by Lord Goldsmith, by Number 10 Downing Street, by the Defence Secretary, that repudiate the allegations being made."

He went on: "There is a great deal in the current state of affairs in our country of allegations being taken as fact.

"People are innocent until proven guilty."