Boris Johnson has not handed over his WhatsApp messages covering the first 16 months of the pandemic as he switched phone.
The shamed former Prime Minister claimed he had given “all material” demanded by the Covid-19 inquiry to the Cabinet Office - and urged the Government to pass it on to inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett.
But the Cabinet Office said it had only received messages from a phone Mr Johnson used from May 2021 onwards.
It had not been given the messages from the phone he used before then, which includes the major part of the pandemic.
Mr Johnson was forced to switch phone in April 2021 after gossip newsletter Popbitch revealed his number had been freely available online for 15 years.
The revelation, which came as the Government set-up a courtroom showdown over supplying the Inquiry with a host of other material, triggered fresh accusations of a cover-up.
On May 23, Baroness Hallett asked for Mr Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages from between January 2020 and February 2022.
At 4.35pm on Wednesday, the ex-PM’s office issued a statement saying: “All Boris Johnson ’s material - including WhatsApps and notebooks - requested by the Covid Inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form.
“Mr Johnson urges the Cabinet Office to urgently disclose it to the Inquiry.”
However, at 5.07pm last night, the Cabinet Office revealed Mr Johnson's lawyers have not even provided a "substantive response" to a request from the Cabinet Office for his old mobile phone.
In her statement, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson said material the Cabinet Office received this week did not include messages from before May 2021.
Ms Nicholson's statement said: "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.
"It is my understanding that Mr Johnson has possession of that device, and that it is a personal device.”
The Cabinet Office spoke to Mr Johnson's lawyers on Wednesday “to ask them to check with Mr Johnson that he has possession of the phone, and to confirm this to the Cabinet Office”, said Ms Nicholson.
She added: "We have not yet received a substantive response. As the Cabinet Office is not, I understand, in possession of the phone, any material stored on the phone is not in the Cabinet Office's possession or control."
Rattled Mr Johnson last night wrote to Baroness Hallett insisting he is “more than happy to hand over the relevant WhatsApps and notebooks that you have requested in unredacted form”.
He added: “If you wish to have this material forthwith, please let me know where and how you wish me to send it to you.”
Mr Johnson’s team said he was given advice by security officials never to turn on the old device - meaning historic messages are no longer available to search and the phone is inactive.
It insisted he had no objection to providing content on the phone to the Inquiry.
It said he has written to the Cabinet Office asking for security and technical support so messages can be retrieved without compromising security.
Labour's Angela Rayner said: “The disgraced former Prime Minster is up to old old tricks again, trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes.
"Boris Johnson must account for the mystery of his missing phone and the crucial messages it contains.
"If he believes this evidence should be urgently disclosed to the Covid Inquiry in full, he should have no problem with locating it and handing it over immediately.”
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice spokeswoman Susie Flintham said: "His (Boris Johnson's) latest claim that he conveniently replaced his phone the same month that he announced the Inquiry is as pathetic and shameful as the lies he told about breaking his own lockdown rules.
“After failing families like mine so badly in the first instance, he has lied to us repeatedly and each time poured salt in our wounds and shown callous disregard to the people of this country.
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Johnson was dragged kicking and screaming to set up a public inquiry and now Sunak’s Government seems dead set to undermine it at every turn.
“Boris Johnson has already missed the deadline for providing information and it is now only right for the sake of the British public that he comes clean with all the information that’s been requested.”
