The chair of the UK’ Covid Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, has demanded the UK Government hand over the WhatsApp messages of former PM Boris Johnson and Henry Cook, a senior aide. These were initially refused by the Cabinet Office citing irrelevance before claiming it did not have them.
It has now further emerged the Government’s top lawyer had advised them not to hand over any “politically sensitive” details of discussions between ministers about policy. The policy decision in question is the discussions centred around lockdowns. The government-appointed lawyers are believed to have reviewed the unredacted material before determining it was “unambiguously irrelevant” to the investigation.
Bloomberg reported it had seen leaked legal advice from the government’s most senior lawyer, Sir James Eadie, which suggested officials have been withholding evidence for the inquiry based on political sensitivity, rather than just personal details.
Susie Flintham, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group, has questioned why the Cabinet Office are trying so hard to stop the information being released;
The lengths that the Cabinet Office are going to in order to stop Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and diaries from being shared with the Covid inquiry should alarm everyone.
Further a former head of the civil service, Lord Bob Kerslake, told the BBC’s Radio 4 there was “some cover-up going on here to save embarrassment of ministers.”
It follows close on the heels of Boris Johnson being reported to the police for even more violations of lockdown rules, (commonly known as “party-gate”). The tensions between senior civil servants and Johnson’s team remain high.
Baroness Hallett has the legal power to force the disclosure of evidence, but there are indications (sources tell The Telegraph and The Guardian) that the Cabinet Office are trying to shield the current PM Rishi Sunak. A new deadline of Thursday has been set. They have also requested testimony from a top official as to whether they do or do not have WhatsApp messages or the notebooks of Johnson’s.
May 2020 - As if our government would cover up wrong doings!
