Boris Johnson has bypasses Rishi Sunak and told the Covid Inquiry he is willing to hand over all his 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 handed over only messages from May 2021 or later to the Cabinet Office. In an extraordinary move, the government announced this week it is taking its own inquiry to court so it does not have to disclose material it considers irrelevant – sparking accusations of a “cowardly cover up”. Mr Sunak is under increasing pressure to fold on the issue, with even his own ministers believing legal action will fail.
In a letter to inquiry chair Baroness Hallett, Mr Johnson said he would today give all the material already given to the Cabinet Office to her team “in unredacted form”.
And he proposed passing on all material from his old mobile phone “directly” to the inquiry once government officials assess the safety of the device he abandoned in April 2021.
Stressing it was not his decision to take legal action against the inquiry, the former PM said: “While I understand the government’s position, I am not willing to let my material become a test case for others when I am perfectly content for the inquiry to see it.”
Mr Johnson added: “I am therefore providing the material directly to your inquiry today in unredacted form. I am sending your inquiry all unredacted WhatsApps I provided to the Cabinet Office.”
On the pre-May 2021 material from his old phone, the ex-PM said: “I would like to do the same with any material that may be on an old phone, which I have been previously been told I can no longer access safely.”
Putting the ball back in the Sunak government’s court, Mr Johnson said: “In view of the urgency of your request I believe we need to test this advice, which came from the security services.
“I have asked the Cabinet Office for assistance in turning it on securely so that I can search it for all relevant material. I propose to pass all such material directly to you,” he added.
Mr Johnson was forced to change his phone when it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.
Mr Johnson also said he no longer had the notebooks from his time at No 10 demanded by the inquiry after he gave them to the Cabinet Office. “I have asked that the Cabinet Office pass these to you.”
It comes as science minister George Freeman admitted on Thursday night that the government will likely lose its legal challenge.
Appearing on BBC Question Time, Mr Freeman insisted the decision to launch judicial review proceedings was not a “cynical waste of time” – but admitted he thought the prospect of success unlikely.
“I think personally it’s quite likely that the courts will rule that Baroness Hallett will decide what evidence, but I think it’s a point worth testing,” he told the audience.
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland described the government’s judicial review as a “fool’s errand” – saying Lady Hallett “has the power to make a decision as to what she wants to see”.
The ex-cabinet minister told LBC: “This is wasting time – and time is not what the victims and those affected by the Covid crisis will want to see wasted.”
Mr Buckland said: “It’s not a question of a free for all, it’s not a question of all this material to be published in the full glare of publicity – it will be for [Lady] Hallet’s team to assess the relevance of the material and use it as they see fit.”
Tory peer Gavin Barwell also said it was important said it was “mistake” for the government takes legal action over the Covid inquiry’s demand for Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages.
“If we can’t see how the government made the decision it made … then people are not going to have confidence in the outcome of the inquiry,” the former No 10 chief of staff told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Lord Barwell also encouraged Mr Johnson to hand over the messages before May 2021, which he has not yet done. “Although after what he has said, surely inconceivable that he won’t hand them over???” he tweeted.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, accused Mr Sunak of a “cover-up” and “digging himself further into a hole by pursuing doomed legal battles”. The Lib Dems accused the government of a “cowardly attempt to obstruct a vital public inquiry”.
Elkan Abrahamson from law firm Broudie Jackson Canter – who represents the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group – accused the Cabinet Office of “showing utter disregard for the inquiry".
Lord Saville, who conducted the inquiry into Bloody Sunday, suggested he might consider quitting if he was in Baroness Hallett’s 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.
