Boris Johnson – latest: Ex-PM goes over Sunak’s head to send unredacted WhatsApps ‘directly’ to inquiry
WhatsApp row rumbles on as ex-PM vows to bypass government and send information straight to inquiry
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Boris Johnson has told the Covid-19 Inquiry that he is willing to hand over “all unredacted WhatsApp” messages – including 2020 material from a previous phone discarded for security reasons.
The former prime minister is under fire once again after it emerged on Thursday that he had only handed over Covid-related messages from May 2021 or later to Cabinet Office officials.
In a letter to inquiry chair Baroness Hallett, Mr Johnson said he would today hand over all the material already given to the Cabinet Office “in unredacted form” to her team.
Earlier, a minister said Rishi Sunak’s legal bid to prevent the inquiry from obtaining WhatsApp messages sent by Boris Johnson to government colleagues during the pandemic was likely to fail.
Science minister George Freeman, appearing on BBC Question Time, insisted the Cabinet Office decision to launch judicial review proceedings was not a “cynical waste of time” but admitted he thought the prospect of success unlikely.
The Cabinet Office is seeking a judicial review of inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to release the documents, arguing it should not have to hand over irrelevant material.
I might quit if I were Lady Hallett, says ex-inquiry chairman
Lord Saville, who conducted the inquiry into Bloody Sunday, suggested that if he were in Baroness Hallett’s position, he might consider quitting.
“Trying to put myself in her position, if I was prevented from conducting a full and proper inquiry, I might seriously consider resigning on the grounds that I was unable to do a proper job,” he told Channel 4 News.
“It is a course that could be open her if she felt her efforts to carry out a thorough inquiry were being frustrated.”
Boris Johnson’s letter in full
The former prime minister, who was in No 10 during the coronavirus pandemic, asks the Baroness Hallett to let him know where and how she wishes him to send his WhatsApp messages and notebooks:
Minister predicts government will lose judicial review
A government minister has predicted the Cabinet Office will lose its legal fight with the Covid-19 inquiry after officials launched judicial review proceedings.
Science minister George Freeman said he expected the courts to side with Baroness Hallett, but that he did not think it was a “cynical” exercise and it was a “point worth testing”.
Mr Freeman told BBC Question Time: “I completely agree that in the end, this is a judicial decision. It’ll be taken by the courts. I happen to think the courts will probably take the view that Baroness Hallett, who’s running the inquiry, is perfectly entitled and empowered to decide whatever she wants.
“I don’t think it is a cynical waste of time at all. The privacy point is relevant. I think it’ll clear up and give people confidence, even if all this achieves is to make very clear that the inquiry will treat with absolute confidentiality anything private and we can get on with it.”
Johnson’s pre-2021 mobile omitted from evidence submitted
In a letter to the inquiry, released after a 4pm deadline to hand over the material, the Cabinet Office said it had provided “as much relevant information as possible, and as quickly as possible” in line with the order.
A tranche of legal documents and letters published on Thursday evening reveal among other things that the WhatsApp messages passed to Cabinet Office officials are only from May 2021 onwards.
In a statement to the inquiry, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson said Mr Johnson’s lawyers had not provided a “substantive response” to a request from the department for his old mobile phone.
Ms Nicholson said the Cabinet Office had received Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages on Wednesday afternoon and was reviewing the material “for national security sensitivities and unambiguously irrelevant material, and appropriate redactions are being applied”.
She added: “In that material, there are no WhatsApp communications before May 2021. I understand that this is because, in April 2021, in light of a well-publicised security breach, Mr Johnson implemented security advice relating to the mobile phone he had had up until that time.
Mr Johnson was forced to change his mobile in 2021 after it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.
It is understood that the former prime minister has no objection to providing the material on the phone to the inquiry.
He is believed to have written to the Cabinet Office to ask whether security and technical support can be given to help retrieve the content on the device without compromising security.
Covid families warn of inquiry ‘whitewash and cover-up'
The government’s defence of its refusal to hand over the files has prompted warnings that bereaved families could now regard the public inquiry as a “whitewash and cover-up”.
A lawyer who represents the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the Cabinet Office was showing utter disregard for the inquiry in “maintaining their belief that they are the higher power and arbiter of what is relevant material and what is not”.
Elkan Abrahamson, head of major inquests and inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter, said: “It raises questions about the integrity of the inquiry and how open and transparent it will be if the chair is unable to see all of the material.”
Johnson offers to send unaltered files directly to inquiry
Boris Johnson says he is “more than happy” to hand over his unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks directly to the Covid inquiry, as the government prepares for a legal battle with the probe.
In a letter to the inquiry on Thursday evening, the former prime minister offered to hand over the requested material directly.
He wrote: “This is of course without prejudice to the judicial review that the government has now launched.
“I agree with the Cabinet Office position that in principle advice to ministers should not be made public. That is clearly essential for the effective running of the country and for the impartiality of the civil service.
“I am simply making a practical point: that I see no reason why the inquiry should not be able to satisfy itself about the contents of my own Whatsapps (sic) and notebooks, and to check the relevant Whatsapp (sic) conversations (about 40 of them) for anything that it deems relevant to the Covid inquiry.
“If you wish to have this material forthwith, please let me know where and how you wish me to send it to you.”
Order for unredacted evidence will slow inquiry, government argues
The Covid inquiry’s approach to requesting unredacted material risks slowing it down, the Cabinet Office will argue.
Legal documents published as part of the judicial review challenge read: “If notices are properly restricted to relevant material, and if the door is not open for an exercise of powers of compulsion in very widely formulated notices on the basis that almost anything is to be characterised as potentially relevant, the inquiry’s work will not be impeded a jot in practical terms.
“They will receive, and the public can be entirely confident that they will receive, every scrap of relevant material.
“In purely practical terms, there are far greater risks attached to the sort of approach that has been taken here by the inquiry - risks of the inquiry being swamped with material, much irrelevant; risks of their resources being sidetracked into reviewing exercises that they should not be, and do not need to be, undertaking; and risks accordingly that their speed and efficiency put at risk.”
Labour suspends MP over sexual harassment claims
A long-serving Labour MP has been suspended over allegations he sexually harassed junior colleagues.
The party has launched an investigation, writes Archie Mitchell:
Labour suspends veteran MP over claims he sexually harassed junior colleagues
Party will probe reports of ‘incredibly serious allegations of completely unacceptable behaviour’
PM urges nations to tackle illegal migration
Rishi Sunak urged European countries to “work cooperatively to tackle illegal migration” at a gathering of leaders from across the continent in Moldova.
The Prime Minister also used the meeting of the European Political Community to call for more support for Ukraine, backing Volodymyr Zelensky’s case for his war-torn nation to be part of Nato, after talks with the Ukrainian president.
Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in Nato, Mr Sunak said.
We’ll comply with law, Sunak pledges
Mr Sunak refused to answer questions on whether the government would hand over the evidence by the 4pm deadline, saying they had been “co-operating thoroughly” with the Covid inquiry and would “continue to comply with the law”.
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