The Cabinet Office is looking for a judicial overview of Baroness Hallett’s order to launch Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, diaries and notebooks, it confirmed in a letter to the COVID inquiry.
The authorities division stated it was bringing a judicial overview problem “with regret” – however added that there have been “important issues of principle at stake”.
Despite the event, it stated it could “continue to co-operate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question”.
The authorized motion comes after days of wrangling through which the federal government hesitated over handing the tranche of paperwork to the general public inquiry over fears it could compromise ministers’ and different people’ proper to privateness.
Outlining its refusal at hand over the fabric in its letter, the Cabinet Office once more questioned whether or not it had “the power to compel production of documents and messages which are unambiguously irrelevant to the inquiry’s work”.
COVID authorized problem ‘determined try and withhold proof – politics newest
Such supplies embody private messages and “matters unconnected to the government’s handling of COVID”, it stated.
It argued that requesting “irrelevant” materials “represents an unwarranted intrusion into other aspects of the work of government” and that “important issues of principle are at stake here, affecting both the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government”.
It stated it had explored “a number of possible avenues for resolving this difference of opinion”, together with providing redacted variations of the supplies and “a more focused or sequential approach to the direction of the information requirements”.
“We remain hopeful and willing to agree together the best way forward.”
Inquiry chair Lady Hallett ordered the federal government to hand over the paperwork final week with none amendments, utilizing a bit 21 discover.
The tranche contains messages despatched between former prime minister Mr Johnson and his fellow ministers and advisers throughout the pandemic, in addition to diary entries.
But the Cabinet Office stated on Thursday that Mr Johnson’s messages didn’t cowl the entire interval the inquiry needs as a result of he was utilizing a brand new telephone from May 2021.
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‘Govt cooperating with inquiry’
A authorities lawyer stated the previous prime minister had additionally swapped his personal authorized illustration not too long ago and gave “specified legal counsel permission to access an electronic record of certain WhatsApps” over the previous two days.
Then on Wednesday night time, Mr Johnson “invited Cabinet Office to share this information with the inquiry”.
“By working through the night, lawyers acting for Cabinet Office have now completed our review for national security and unambiguously irrelevant material and are in a separate communication providing the relevant material to the inquiry today,” they added.
But the division needed to notice it had “not been able to verify the completeness of this material” given to them by Mr Johnson, saying it didn’t cowl the “whole of the specified time period, but only the period from May 2021 when the former prime minister acquired a new phone”.
It added: “We have asked Boris Johnson if he will provide to us any further messages caught by the section 21 notice.”
The inquiry confirmed on Thursday afternoon that it had acquired a response from the Cabinet Office.
In a brief assertion, it stated: “At 4pm today the chair of the UK COVID public inquiry was served a copy of a claim form by the Cabinet Office seeking to commence judicial review proceedings against the chair’s ruling of 22 May 2023.”
Further data can be supplied at a preliminary listening to at 10.30am on 6 June, it stated.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Johnson’s staff claimed all the data the inquiry needed had been handed to the Cabinet Office.
His spokesman stated the ex-prime minister needed the Cabinet Office to “urgently” hand over the fabric, in a transfer that put strain on Rishi Sunak and the federal government at hand over the paperwork.
It is known the older messages on Mr Johnson’s telephone – earlier than May 2021 – are not out there to go looking as a result of he was suggested to not activate his outdated telephone following a well-publicised safety breach in April that yr.
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Govt stands agency in Johnson row
Sources near Mr Johnson say the Cabinet Office has been conscious of the outdated telephone.
They say he has no objection to offering the content material on the telephone to the inquiry and has written to the Cabinet Office asking whether or not safety and technical help may be given so the content material may be retrieved with out compromising safety.
Responding to the judicial overview, Labour’s deputy chief Angela Rayner accused Mr Sunak of undermining the inquiry and stated he was “hopelessly distracted with legal ploys to obstruct the COVID inquiry in a desperate attempt to withhold evidence”.
“Instead of digging himself further into a hole by pursuing doomed legal battles to conceal the truth, Rishi Sunak must comply with the COVID inquiry’s requests for evidence in full. There can be no more excuses,” she stated.
Daisy Cooper, the deputy chief of the Liberal Democrats, additionally criticised the federal government’s choice, calling it a “kick in the teeth” for bereaved households and a “cowardly attempt to obstruct a vital public inquiry”.
She stated: “The government is delaying the inquiry even further and clogging up court time, all to prevent Sunak and his Conservative colleagues from having to release their messages.”
Content Source: information.sky.com