UK government takes legal action over Johnson’s Covid messages

Rishi Sunak’s government on Thursday launched legal action to block the release of Boris Johnson’s unrestricted WhatsApp messages for an official COVID-19 public inquiry.

But in a new twist, it emerged that Johnson had only given government messages relating to the period after May 2021 when he acquired a new phone; By that time the worst of the Covid crisis had passed.

The two developments prompted Labor to claim that both Sunak and Johnson were trying to sabotage the inquiry, set up to draw lessons from the way the government handled the pandemic.

The decision to seek a judicial review to prevent the release of “clearly irrelevant” unredacted messages puts Sunak at loggerheads with the head of the inquiry, former judge Baroness Heather Hallett.

The Cabinet Office said it had taken the legal step “with regret” and sought to protect “the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government”.

It turned out Johnson only gave it communications dating from May 2021 – more than a year after the pandemic hit Britain and the same month he announced a Covid inquiry.

Johnson’s aides said he obtained a new phone that month after a security breach and security officials told him never to turn on the old device. “The effect is that historical messages are no longer available to search and the phone is not active,” said an aide.

Johnson, who still has the old phone, has written to the Cabinet Office to see if the messages can be recovered “without compromising security”. Johnson’s aides said they “had no idea” if this would be possible.

Johnson also wrote to Hallett on Thursday to say that he was “more than happy to hand over the relevant WhatsApp and notebooks that you have requested in unrestricted form” and that he was prepared to send them directly to her.

Hallett had given the government until 4pm on Thursday to hand over declassified material relating to Johnson’s time as prime minister, including WhatsApp messages and notebooks.

But at 4.20 pm the Cabinet Office announced it would seek leave to bring about a judicial review, arguing that Hallett was exceeding her statutory powers in demanding the full cache of unedited material.

There is an awareness in Whitehall that a decision about whether or not to render Johnson’s communications unrestricted would set a precedent for other ministers – including Sunak – to be handed over to Hallett’s team at a later date.

Sunak was chancellor during the pandemic and was skeptical about the lockdown, warning about the economic damage.

The Cabinet Office said, “The request for clearly irrelevant material is beyond the powers of the inquiry.” Hallett has argued that he must decide whether the material is irrelevant.

Labor said both Sunak and Johnson were “playing the game at the public’s expense”, while Labor’s deputy leader Angela Rayner accused Sunak of engaging in a “desperate attempt to withhold evidence”.

“After 13 years of Tory scandals, these latest smoke and mirrors tactics only serve to undermine the Covid investigation. The public deserves answers, not another cover-up,” she said.

Earlier speaking at a summit in Moldova, Sunak insisted the government was “confident in our position”. He stressed the importance of learning lessons from the pandemic and examining “the spirit of rigor as well as transparency and candor”.

Sunak said the government had handed over more than 55,000 documents and would “of course, continue to abide by the law” and “cooperate with the investigation”.

Officials have accused the probe of taking an “autocratic” approach to the disclosure of material, but stressed that the spat over the matter was not confrontational.