Boris Johnson says unredacted Covid WhatsApp messages ‘handed to Cabinet Office’
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otebooks and WhatsApp messages belonging to Boris Johnson have been handed over to the Cabinet Office to allow them to be disclosed to the Covid-19 inquiry, a spokesman has confirmed.
The spokesman for the previous prime minister stated on Wednesday: “All Boris Johnson’s material – including WhatsApps and notebooks – requested by the Covid inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form.
“Mr Johnson urges the Cabinet Office to urgently disclose it to the inquiry.
“The Cabinet Office has had access to this material for several months. Mr Johnson would immediately disclose it directly to the inquiry if asked.
“While Mr Johnson understands the Government’s position, and does not seek to contradict it, he is perfectly happy for the inquiry to have access to this material in whatever form it requires.
“Mr Johnson co-operated with the inquiry in full from the beginning of this process and continues to do so.
“Indeed, he established the inquiry. He looks forward to continuing to assist the inquiry with its important work.”
A row over the degrees of disclosure required of the previous prime minister was sparked on April 28, when a authorized request despatched by the inquiry requested for a variety of supplies, together with unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries belonging to Mr Johnson, from January 2020 to February 2022.
Earlier this month the Cabinet Office resisted the request, which was made underneath part 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005 and which additionally applies to messages from Mr Johnson’s former adviser Henry Cook.
Whitehall officers had been understood to be involved about setting a precedent by handing over all of the requested paperwork in unredacted kind, somewhat than deciding what materials is related and must be submitted to the inquiry.
In a ruling final week, Lady Hallett rejected the argument that the inquiry’s request was illegal and stated the Cabinet Office had “misunderstood the breadth of the investigation”.
Refusing to adjust to the request would result in a authorized conflict with the official inquiry.
The Cabinet Office had been given till 4pm on Tuesday to adjust to the order from Lady Hallett’s public inquiry, but that deadline was extended to the same time on Thursday after officers claimed they didn’t have all of the paperwork demanded.
The demand covers textual content conversations between Mr Johnson and a number of presidency figures, civil servants and officers.
The listing contains England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty, in addition to then-chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
Messages with then-foreign secretary Liz Truss and then-health secretary Matt Hancock are additionally requested, in addition to with former prime aide Dominic Cummings and then-chancellor Mr Sunak.
The inquiry additionally requested for “copies of the 24 notebooks containing contemporaneous notes made by the former prime minister” in “clean unredacted form, save only for any redactions applied for reasons of national security sensitivity”.