Cabinet Office in court docket over giving Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps and diaries to COVID inquiry

The authorities might be in court docket at present because it fights an order from the COVID inquiry to handover unredacted messages from Boris Johnson.

The probe was arrange by the previous prime minister to look into the dealing with of the pandemic, and hearings have already begun.

But its chair, Baroness Hallet, grew to become annoyed with the Cabinet Office final month after it held again a few of Mr Johnson’s WhatsApps, diary entries and notebooks over fears they’d compromise ministers’ proper to privateness.

Politics reside: ‘Hugely necessary day for NHS’, minister says

She issued a authorized order to the division to ship all of the paperwork over with out amendments, saying it was for her to resolve what was related to the inquiry, however officers continued to refuse and are actually in search of a judicial evaluation.

Announcing the court docket problem earlier this month “with regret”, the Cabinet Office stated there have been “important issues of principle at stake, 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.”

The resolution had the backing of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who stated he was “confident in the position it’s taking”.

The row uncovered the continued rift between Mr Johnson and his successors in Downing Street, with him providing to handover the paperwork himself in contradiction with the federal government’s place.

Read extra on Sky News:
How the federal government plans to handle the NHS staffing disaster
Who was named as criticising the Boris Johnson partygate report?

But officers claimed what he supplied up was nonetheless not all of the messages and entries required by the chair’s order.

For instance, older messages from the ex-PM’s telephone – earlier than May 2021 – are not obtainable to look as a result of he was suggested to not activate his outdated system following a well-publicised safety breach in April that yr.

The authorities – and Mr Sunak himself – confronted accusations from opposition events that they have been obstructing the inquiry, with Labour’s Angela Rayner calling it “a desperate attempt to withhold evidence”.

She added: “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.”