Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps from first year of pandemic not handed over to Covid inquiry

Boris Johnson has not handed his WhatsApp from the first year of the pandemic to the Government, it has emerged, as ministers took their battle with the Covid inquiry to court.

Baroness Hallett, the chairman of the inquiry, had ordered the Cabinet Office to provide unredacted messages from the Covid crisis by 4pm on Thursday or face legal action.

The Cabinet Office held firm and refused to submit the former prime minister’s unredacted messages and notebooks, claiming that the inquiry was demanding “unambiguously irrelevant” information that would compromise ministers’ private lives.

Instead, officials took the unprecedented step of seeking a judicial review to limit the inquiry’s remit, meaning that the two sides will now fight their corner in court.

Mr Johnson claimed to have handed over all of his unredacted WhatsApp messages to the Cabinet Office on Wednesday, with the Government’s lawyers then choosing which material to submit to the inquiry.

However, after the deadline passed, the Cabinet Office said that Mr Johnson had not handed over a personal phone he used until May 2021 – more than a year after the start of the pandemic, and the same month that he announced that a Covid inquiry would take place.

On Thursday night Mr Johnson’s spokesman admitted that he had the phone in question, but that security officials had told him not to switch it on. The Cabinet Office said this meant they were unable to pass on the WhatsApp messages it contained.

On Thursday night, a spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “After a well-publicised security breach in April 2021, Mr Johnson was given advice by security officials never to turn on the old device. The effect is that historic messages are no longer available to search and the phone is not active.

“Mr Johnson has absolutely no objection whatsoever to providing content on the phone to the inquiry. He has written to the Cabinet Office asking whether security and technical support can be given so that content can be retrieved without compromising security.”

The spokesman added that he had written to the inquiry offering to disclose unredacted material to it directly.

Unable to get to the truth

It is the latest farce to hit the inquiry, with accusations of a government “cover-up” fuelling fears that it will be unable to get to the truth of ministers’ failings and decisions during the pandemic.

A former Cabinet minister said: “Boris has got something to hide, and now the Cabinet Office seem to be digging their heels in. Who else has got something to hide?”

The Cabinet Office released documents on Thursday night revealing that Mr Johnson had only submitted messages from May 2021, when he acquired a new phone.

A witness statement by Ellie Nicholson, co-director of the public inquiry response unit within the Cabinet Office, said: “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.

“It is my understanding that Mr Johnson has possession of that device, and that it is a personal device.”

His mobile number was found to have been accessible online for 15 years, the report in May 2021 found, having been published at the bottom of a press release when he was a junior shadow minister.

She said the Cabinet Office had asked Mr Johnson to hand over the phone, and offered to have it assessed by security experts, but he has not done so.

Parm Sahota, Treasury Solicitor, outlined the Government’s decision to take the inquiry to court in a letter to Lady Hallett.

“We consider there to be important issues of principle at stake here, affecting both the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government,” she said.

“The request for unambiguously irrelevant material goes beyond the powers of the inquiry. Individuals, junior officials, current and former ministers and departments should not be required to provide material that is irrelevant to the inquiry’s work.

Full response to the Government

“It represents an unwarranted intrusion into other aspects of the work of government. It also represents an intrusion into their legitimate expectations of privacy and protection of their personal information.”

A spokeswoman for the inquiry said it would give a full response to the Government’s decision on Tuesday.

It also emerged on Thursday that Baroness Hallett had sent Mr Johnson 150 questions on his handling of the pandemic covering his use of WhatsApp and the scientific advice behind lockdowns.

In a letter dated Feb 3 she asked him whether he felt “able to properly challenge” the advice of government scientists who were urging him to shut down the country.

She cited reports that Mr Johnson felt he had been “manipulated” into the first lockdown by Sage and asked whether that led him to seek out other opinions.

Baroness Hallett grilled him on the performance of Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, asking whether he had “concerns” about his performance.

The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files revealed  a tranche of 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between Mr Hancock and other  ministers and officials at the height of the pandemic.

Lord Robin Butler, cabinet secretary from 1988 to 1998 and chairman of a 2004 review into the use of intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq war, told the BBC that legal proceedings could “sour the relationship” between the inquiry and the Government.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “After 13 years of Tory scandal, these latest smoke and mirror tactics serve only to undermine the Covid Inquiry. The public deserve answers, not another cover-up.”

Bereaved families could regard the public inquiry as a “whitewash and cover-up” if the Government failed to hand over Boris Johnson’s unredacted documents, a legal team representing them has said.