RISHI Sunak’s personal mobile number has been leaked and published online, according to reports.
It comes as pranksters published an audio clip of the phone ringing followed by the Prime Minister’s answerphone message responding.
According to The Sun, the number is the same one that Sunak has used for many years, including during his time as chancellor and during last year’s Tory leadership election.
It is understood that the PM was given a separate number when he came to power a year ago.
But, the footage that appeared on Sunday seems to show that the number is still in operation.
It comes after Sunak said he was unable to hand over some Whatsapp messages to the UK Covid inquiry sent to and from the number in question, because he had not backed them up after allegedly changing phones a number of times.
Asked by the BBC at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier this month whether it was true he no longer had the WhatsApp messages, Sunak refused to be drawn, saying: “What I can tell you because obviously this is a legal process which is going on, is that I’m helping the Covid inquiry fully and very, very expansively with everything.”
Asked again about the messages, he replied: “I think as people will know that this is the legal inquiry, there’s a full process, I submit a lot of different evidence and documentation. I will be interviewed, all of that will be transparent and public.
“And of course, I’m helping with all of that, as people would expect. We want to learn the lessons from Covid.”
Number 10 declined to comment on the leak due or associated security issues.
We previously told how Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson’s mobile number had been available online for 15 years.
In 2021, it emerged that a contact number for Johnson was listed at the bottom of a press release from his time as shadow higher education minister from 2006.
The number was easily available to anyone online who searched for it.
The press release invited journalists to contact Johnson directly on either a Commons office number or his mobile.
Concerns were raised on a number of occasions that Johnson’s number was widely known and that there may be security implications.
