Cabinet Office Accused Of Withholding Boris Johnson WhatsApps From Covid Inquiry

The government has been accused of refusing to hand over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and other evidence to the official Covid inquiry.

In response, the inquiry has threatened legal action to force the material to be provided.

The inquiry wants to see material including 24 notebooks kept by Johnson during the pandemic.

It has has also demanded access to unredacted messages from Johnson to 40 people including high ranking figures such as Rishi Sunak, cabinet secretary Simon Case and other senior ministers, officials and aides.

Rejecting the request, Downing Street said the government was supplying “all relevant” evidence to the inquiry but had no duty to disclose anything “unambiguously irrelevant”.

The inquiry has given the government until 4pm on May 30 to comply with its legal order.

In a separate letter to the inquiry, Johnson said it was “unfair and untrue” for it to be suggested he personally had refused to provide the evidence.

“I have always sought to comply with all disclosure requests from the Inquiry and I have already disclosed over 5,000 pages of documents and over 300 pages of emails,” he said.

Johnson said he had ditched his government appointed lawyers and was now “instructing new solicitors”.

It comes after he was referred to the police by civil servants after they discovered entries in his diary which could suggest more rules were broken during lockdown.

According to The Times, Johnson’s diary revealed visits by friends to Chequers during the pandemic and new allegations about  behaviour in Downing Street.

The diary was being examined by lawyers in order that material could be provided to the inquiry.

Johnson has claimed the decision to refer him to the police is a “politically motivated stitch up” by some in government.

“The events in question were all within the rules either because they were held outdoors or came within another lawful exception. They include regular meetings with civil servants and advisers,” his office said.

Both the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police confirmed they had received documents about “potential breaches of the Health Protection Regulations between June 2020 and May 2021”.