Deadline looms in row over WhatsApp release to Covid inquiry

The government has until 4pm to hand over unredacted messages and notebooks to the Covid inquiry, or face potential legal action.

The inquiry wants to see various messages between Boris Johnson and his advisers during the pandemic, as well as his diaries and notebooks.

The government has refused to disclose some of the material, arguing it is not relevant to the inquiry’s work.

But the inquiry’s boss says deciding what is relevant should be her job.

The inquiry, set up in May 2021, is investigating the government’s handling of the pandemic and is due to begin public hearings in two weeks.

The stand-off could lead to a legal battle between the inquiry and the Cabinet Office, the government department that supports the prime minister.

Mr Johnson has urged the Cabinet Office to hand the material to the inquiry in full without redactions, adding that he would do so himself “if asked”.

In a statement on Wednesday, the former prime minister said he had now given the department all the documents, adding it had had “access” to the material for several months.

The Cabinet Office – which had earlier told the inquiry it didn’t have all the WhatsApps or notebooks – then said officials were assessing them.

The material sought by the inquiry includes WhatsApp messages on Mr Johnson’s devices from a group chat set up to discuss the pandemic response.

It has also asked to see WhatsApp messages on his devices he exchanged with a host of politicians, including his successor Rishi Sunak, as well as various civil servants, including the UK’s top civil servant Simon Case.

It has also asked for the former prime minister’s diaries, as well as 24 notebooks in which he made contemporaneous notes.

But in a challenge to the request, the Cabinet Office said the WhatsApp threads contained some messages that are “unambiguously irrelevant” to the inquiry’s remit.

It said these included discussion of “entirely separate” policy areas, diary arrangements unconnected to Covid, references to disciplinary matters, and “comments of a personal nature” about individuals.

Disclosing the messages, it added, could breach individuals’ right to privacy and undermine the ability of ministers to discuss policy matters in the future.

However, crossbench peer Baroness Hallett, who chairs the inquiry, said the information it had requested was “potentially relevant” to its task of investigating government decision-making.

Examining “superficially unrelated” political matters might be necessary, she argued, to understand the broader context in which decisions were made.

She revealed that material redacted, or blanked out, by the Cabinet Office includes chats about relations between the UK and Scottish government, and the way in which WhatsApp itself should be used by ministers to discuss government policy.

“These are matters that I and my team are better placed to assess than any document provider,” she added.

Baroness Hallett has previously warned that a failure to disclose the material the inquiry has requested would be a criminal offence.

The Cabinet Office has questioned whether the inquiry has the power to request “entirely personal” WhatsApp messages, and is reportedly considering asking a judge to review whether the demands are legal.

The matter has been seen as a litmus test of the ability of public inquiries to get hold of messages on WhatsApp, which has become an increasingly popular means of communication within Westminster in recent years.

However, some senior Conservative MPs have urged the government to back down to avoid a lengthy legal showdown.

William Wragg, chairman of a parliamentary committee on constitutional affairs, said on Wednesday: “If the inquiry requests documents and info – then whoever it has asked should comply.”

There has been friction between Mr Sunak’s government and Mr Johnson over the Cabinet Office’s decision to refer him to police over further potential Covid rule breaches during the pandemic.

The Cabinet Office said it made the referral following a review of his official diary by government lawyers as part of the Covid inquiry.

The former PM has dismissed claims of any breaches as a “politically motivated stitch-up”.