Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and diaries have been at the centre of the row (Picture: PA)
The row over Boris Johnson’s Whatsapp messages will soon enter the courtroom as the Cabinet Office takes on the Covid-19 inquiry.
The Cabinet Office had a choice: hand over Johnson’s dossier to investigators by 4pm today or face a legal dispute.
But after the deadline passed, government officials wrote in a letter to the inquiry: ‘The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review.’
The Covid inquiry, set up by the government in May 2021, is looking into how ministers and officials handled the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cabinet Office, the government department that supports the PM, has argued that not all of Johnson’s materials are ‘unambiguously irrelevant’ to the inquiry so haven’t released them.
Johnson’s team said it gave the Cabinet Office the materials on Wednesday.
The Cabinet Office – which had earlier told the inquiry it didn’t have all the WhatsApps or notebooks – then said officials were assessing them.
Investigators are hoping to pry open every cabinet and briefcase related to the pandemic, including a WhatsApp group chat set up to discuss the response.
They’re also hoping to wrangle messages the then-prime minister exchanged with other politicians, including his successor Rishi Sunak, and civil servants.
Yet the Cabinet Office argued that much of this doesn’t fall under the inquiry’s remit, such as diary pages unconnected to coronavirus or ‘comments of a personal nature’ about individuals.
Being arm-twisted into releasing the documents, it added, would breach privacy.
Just 45 minutes before the 4pm deadline, prime minister Rishi Sunak dithered over whether to hand the materials over to chairwoman Baroness Hallett.
‘We’re confident in our position but are carefully considering next steps,’ he told reporters from a summit in Moldova.
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‘The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review.’