In a letter to Baroness Hallett, who will be chairing the inquiry, the former prime minister said he was willing to hand over all his WhatsApp messages from the relevant period, including material on a phone which he says he stopped using for security reasons.
Johnson’s concession comes hours after the government said it would seek a judicial review of Hallett’s demand that all messages from the former prime minister and his officials should be handed over to the inquiry. The government said it did want to hand over material that was “unambiguously irrelevant.”
The messages on the second phone—which he stopped using in May 2021—are likely to include key conversations about the three coronavirus lockdowns ordered in 2020.
Johnson Queries Advice From Security Services
“In view of the urgency of your request I believe we need to test this advice, which came from the security services. I have asked the Cabinet Office for assistance in turning it on securely so that I can search it for all relevant material. I propose to pass all such material directly to you,” he added.He went on to promise to hand over his unredacted notebooks back from the Cabinet Office and share them with the inquiry if the government, led by Rishi Sunak, refused.
Johnson was forced to dump his old mobile phone after it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.
It was Johnson who appointed Hallett to chair the inquiry in December 2021.
Johnson, his wife Carrie, and 81 other people were later given fines for breaching the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines at a series of parties and events in Downing Street during the pandemic.
On Friday Lord Barwell, who was a minister in Theresa May’s government, criticised the government’s plans for a judicial review of Hallett’s request.
WhatsApp Messages ‘Might be a bit Embarrassing’
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Some of the messages might be a bit embarrassing but, nonetheless, I think they’re making a bad mistake. It’s important that we get to the truth and if we can’t see how the government made the decisions it made, how it got to the point that it did, then people are not going to have confidence in the outcome of the inquiry.”
Elkan Abrahamson, head of major inquests and inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter, a legal firm that represents the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the Cabinet Office was “showing utter disregard for the inquiry.”The deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, Angela Rayner, said: “While the rest of the country is focused on the cost-of-living crisis, Rishi Sunak is hopelessly distracted with legal ploys to obstruct the COVID inquiry in a desperate attempt to withhold evidence.”
“After 13 years of Tory scandal, these latest smoke-and-mirror tactics serve only to undermine the COVID inquiry. The public deserve answers, not another cover-up,” Rayner added.
Lord Saville, who conducted the public inquiry into Bloody Sunday, said he sympathised with Hallett and told Channel 4 News: “If I was prevented from conducting a full and proper inquiry, I might seriously consider resigning on the grounds that I was unable to do a proper job.”
A spokesman for the COVID-19 inquiry said: “At 4 pm today the chair of the UK COVID-19 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 May 22 2023. Further information will be provided at the module two preliminary hearing at 10.30 am on June 6.”
