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Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Alamy Stock Photo

Boris Johnson ‘more than happy’ to hand material to UK Covid inquiry amid legal battle

Johnson was forced to change his mobile in 2021 after it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.

BORIS JOHNSON HAS said he is “more than happy” to hand over his unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks directly to the Covid inquiry, as the Government prepares for a legal battle with the probe. 

The Cabinet Office on Thursday confirmed it was seeking a judicial review of inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to release the documents, arguing that it should not have to hand over material which is “unambiguously irrelevant”.

But Johnson, in his own letter to the inquiry this evening, offered to hand over the requested material directly. 

He wrote: “This is of course without prejudice to the Judicial Review that the Government has now launched. I agree with the Cabinet Office position that in principle advice to ministers should not be made public. That is clearly essential for the effective running of the country and for the impartiality of the civil service.

“I am simply making a practical point: that I see no reason why the inquiry should not be able to satisfy itself about the contents of my own Whatsapps (sic) and notebooks, and to check the relevant Whatsapp (sic) conversations (about 40 of them) for anything that it deems relevant to the Covid inquiry.

“If you wish to have this material forthwith, please let me know where and how you wish me to send it to you.”

In a letter to the inquiry, released after a 4pm deadline to hand over the material, the Cabinet Office said it had provided “as much relevant information as possible, and as quickly as possible” in line with the order.

The letter said that the Cabinet Office was bringing the judicial review challenge “with regret” and promised to “continue to co-operate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question is determined by the courts”. 

That question will centre on whether Lady Hallett’s inquiry has the power to force ministers to release documents and messages which the Cabinet Office believes are “unambiguously irrelevant” and cover matters “unconnected to the Government’s handling of Covid”. 

The intervention by Johnson comes following criticism of the Government’s move to take legal action against the inquiry, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats condemning the highly unusual move.

But in arguments contained in a tranche of legal documents and letters published this evening, the Government insisted that there were “important issues of principle at stake” affecting the rights of individuals and “the proper conduct of government”.

In making the judicial review application, the Cabinet Office argues that concerns are “sharpened by the fact that irrelevant material contains ‘references to personal and family information, including illness and disciplinary matters’ and ‘comments of a personal nature about identified or identifiable individuals which are unrelated to Covid-19 or that individuals’ role in connection with the response to it’”.

Elsewhere, it is argued the inquiry’s concept of what is or is not relevant could have “absurd” implications and would leave the body “utterly swamped” and potentially slow proceedings.

The row with the inquiry centres around Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, diaries and personal notebooks, which the former prime minister handed over to the Cabinet Office in unredacted form yesterday.

But the documents reveal that the WhatsApp messages passed to officials are only from May 2021 onwards.

In a statement to the inquiry, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson said Johnson’s lawyers have not provided a “substantive response” to a request from the Cabinet Office for his old mobile phone.

Nicholson said the Cabinet Office had received Johnson’s WhatsApp messages yesterday afternoon and was reviewing the material “for national security sensitivities and unambiguously irrelevant material, and appropriate redactions are being applied”.

She added: “In that material, there are no WhatsApp communications before May 2021. I understand that this is because, in April 2021, in light of a well-publicised security breach, Mr Johnson implemented security advice relating to the mobile phone he had had up until that time.”

Johnson was forced to change his mobile in 2021 after it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.

“After a well publicised security breach in April 2021, Mr Johnson was given advice by security officials never to turn on the old device. The effect is that historic messages are no longer available to search and the phone is not active,” a spokesman for the former prime minister said. 

“Mr Johnson has absolutely no objection whatsoever to providing content on the phone to the Inquiry.

“He has written to the Cabinet Office asking whether security and technical support can be given so that content can be retrieved without compromising security.

 “The Cabinet Office have long been aware of the status of the phone.”

Johnson’s notebooks will also be shared with the Covid inquiry in batches as the Cabinet Office said it did not have enough time to redact them after they were handed over. 

A spokesman for the Covid-19 inquiry said: “At 4pm 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 22 May 2023 

“Further information will be provided at the module two preliminary hearing at 10.30am on 6 June.”

Rishi Sunak, who spoke to broadcasters during a visit to Moldova ahead of today’s deadline and before the release of documents, had insisted ministers would act with “transparency and candour”.

The move has prompted warnings that bereaved families could now regard the public inquiry as a “whitewash and cover-up”.

Elkan Abrahamson, head of major inquests and inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter, who represents the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: “The Cabinet Office is showing utter disregard for the inquiry in maintaining their belief that they are the higher power and arbiter of what is relevant material and what is not.

“It raises questions about the integrity of the inquiry and how open and transparent it will be if the chair is unable to see all of the material.”

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    Mute Robert Halvey
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    Apr 12th 2024, 7:55 AM

    Between local and EU elections here in June and the US elections in November, We are going to have a fair idea what way the west is thinking

    85
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    Mute Sean Money
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    Apr 12th 2024, 8:31 AM

    Sure look it he has to back Israel, we need them supported in the region with Iran up to no good. All this cobblers from Harris now going on about Palestine is shocking, he needs to get his own house in order and the Irish people.

    91
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Apr 12th 2024, 8:36 AM

    @Sean Money: He doesn’t ‘have to’ facilitate genocide on Israel’s part. That is very, very wrong.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Apr 12th 2024, 9:27 AM

    @Sean Money: If there is such a thing as a Good Side in that region, then it is Iran.

    If we really must pick sides, then Iran is a far better side than Saudi Arabia, or Israel.

    Islamic terrorism comes from Saudi Arabia, not Iran. It is Saudi Arabia that has funded all those extremist Wahhabi schools throughout the world.
    Not Iran.
    It is Saudi Arabia that supported Al Qaeda and ISIS.
    Not Iran.

    Iran is the regional power that is standing against Saudi extremism, and Saudi oppression, such as what it is doing in Yemen.

    And we must not forget that Iran had a fledgling democracy until overthrown by the US and the UK to install the despotic Shah, so they could have access to Iranian oil under their conditions, which led to where we are today.

    Iran did not make an enemy of the US, of the West; The US made an enemy of Iran.

    And as it was the US who did wrong – the wrongs that led to where we are now – it is up to the US to put those wrongs right.

    That is not to say that Iran is anywhere near where we would like to see it. But that is “our” fault – if we include ourselves in ‘The West’ – and we should do what we can to bring Iran back onside.
    And we could do worse than ostracising the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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    Mute Mike B
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    Apr 12th 2024, 9:49 AM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: all that Saudi oil money has to go somewhere

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    Mute Tom D
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    Apr 12th 2024, 10:07 AM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: How naive. The regime in Iran is bent on regional and global domination under the banner of fundamentalist shiite Islam. This is what they themselves say. They’ve cleverly set up, funded and direct regional proxies all over the Middle East to gain regional dominance and have terror cells all over the West. What’s positive is that Iranian society is very impressive and there is a lot of internal dissent against the current regime. If the regime gets toppled at some point, its likely Iran will become a modern moderate state. The issue is that the regime has set up a very complex system of internal control that brutally stamps out all internal resistance.

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    Mute Tom Newell
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    Apr 12th 2024, 11:42 AM

    @Sean Money: Id rather not back a nuclear armed Israel with a lunatic leader who thinks hes the jewish george bush and can do as he pleases cos hes fighting a supposed war on terror by trying to wipe out palestine…we have enough blood on our hands from doing this with saudi arabia with yemen

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Apr 12th 2024, 12:24 PM

    @Tom D: Islam has 2 main factions – Shia and Sunni.

    A bit like Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Christianity.

    Sunni and Shia do not get on with each other, to put it mildly.

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the center of Sunni Islam. Iran is the center of Shia Islam.

    All of the Islamic terrorist groups and organisations that have attacked Western countries or have been active in the Middle East and North and Eastern Africa are Sunni (Al Qaeda, ISIS/ISIL, Boko Haram), and are backed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), not Iran.

    Not a single terrorist attack on a Western nation has been conducted by a Shia group.

    (Although Shia backed groups have defended themselves from attacks by Western forces or Western backed forces, particularly Israel and the US, and have retaliated in some cases.)

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Apr 12th 2024, 1:17 PM

    @Roy Dowling: Iran have been funding and instigating Hamas and other terrorists for years, Israel are defending themselves you cannot dispute that now.

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Apr 12th 2024, 1:21 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: it really makes you wonder how they can stage a world cup after funding terrorism for years. Its not right and should not be held in KSA.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Apr 12th 2024, 2:11 PM

    @Roy Dowling: You’s think Sean was American, he knows so little but think he knows so much.

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Apr 12th 2024, 2:17 PM

    @Roy Dowling: I tell you, hamas run the West Bank and the people there support them blindly, much to detrement as they will never achieve anything with their terrorist actions. Israel has no choice but to occupy the west bank flush them out.

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    Mute Michael McSharry
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    Apr 12th 2024, 5:47 PM

    @Sean Money: Hamas was set up by Israel as a way of keeping the Palestinian people divided. Netinyahu helped fund it until it got out of his control. He defended supporting Hamas right up to the Oct 7th barbaric invasion of Israel by Hamas. He also supported Quatar donating money to Gaza to help the people there. This was done under the supervision of Israeli government officials. I don’t know if Iran was also supporting Hamas but if it was it was not alone as I have pointed out here.

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    Mute brendan C5
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    Apr 12th 2024, 9:42 AM

    Along with pumping billions into Ukraine while infrastructure back home is falling apart and the southern border is wide open don’t forget that Mr biased opinion man.

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    Mute Diarmuid Hunt
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    Apr 12th 2024, 1:15 PM

    @brendan C5: Who blocked funding for the border?

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    Mute brendan C5
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    Apr 12th 2024, 4:17 PM

    @Diarmuid Hunt: I don’t give a fiddler’s who runs that country, I just want balanced reporting by the media. Not the way they have been reporting the news the last 30 or so years to the point we’re at today.

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    Mute Diarmuid Hunt
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    Apr 12th 2024, 6:37 PM

    @brendan C5: I would prefer truthful reporting over balanced reporting (depending on your definition of balanced) but that has nothing to do with the fact that you’ve blamed lack of improvement on the southern US border on Biden while it was Republicans who blocked the last round of funding. News became ‘infotainment’ a long time ago, it’s not right, but trying to say a US president hasn’t been putting billions into infrastructure when it’s obvious he has won’t help that.

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    Mute Setanta O'Toole
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    Apr 12th 2024, 9:47 AM

    Do the american electorate think Trump’s will be any different? Will be the same if not worse minus even a veneer of attempted diplomacy.

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    Mute Mary.E.
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    Apr 13th 2024, 12:08 AM

    @Setanta O’Toole:
    Maybe the whole presidential election should be postponed until they can find two applicants who are under 78,and who are of reasonable mind.

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    Mute Ed Ruttledge
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    Apr 13th 2024, 3:58 AM

    @Setanta O’Toole: the American electorate does not think. Too busy buying ammo.

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Apr 12th 2024, 10:25 AM

    What is called liberal democracies are often academic-driven politics that use politicians to promote and protect their agendas.

    There is no reason that prejudice should exist if the academic community acknowledges the only biological distinction within humanity is between male and female rather than ‘races’ along with invalid terms like racial, racism and so on.

    The academic community could inform society that climate covers many research areas, and the idea that it can be railroaded into long-term weather is a modelling indulgence.

    Commenters tend to give politicians a hard time and give the academic community a free pass despite the influence of the latter on the former. The imbalance between social and academic politics is unhealthy.

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    Mute Robert Bell
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    Apr 12th 2024, 8:21 AM

    Lets hope so.

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    Mute Ian Richmond
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    Apr 12th 2024, 8:45 AM

    Iraqi Kurdistan has been and probably still is supplying Israel with oil to carry out its war and normal usage.Despite the Iraqi Baghdadi government making any dealings(even personal friendships)with Israel/Israelis a capital crime.The Iraqi Erbil government and its territory are now in danger of nuclear conflict and ground attack from Iran which could easily involve Syria.Iraqi Kurdistan is a Christian refuge and the Baghdadi government have recently repaired the an oil supply route avoiding all Kurdistani territory.Its def con one almost over there and this is because Israel went genocidal on a smallarea that should of been given to Egypt decades ago.

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    Mute Ian Richmond
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    Apr 12th 2024, 9:04 AM

    @Roy Dowling: Yes I agree wholeheartly Mr Dowling.And we ve now got Iran acting to end it.

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    Mute Ian Richmond
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    Apr 12th 2024, 12:46 PM

    I was in Iraq when this conflict began and visited Palestine after it occurred.So I m actually stating events from observation and analysis not sides or political loyalties.There is a good chance Iran will now make it a war ,the cull you mentioned being the catalyst for the escalation.There were anti-Western communications on social media the day the Hamas attack occurred in Iraq.

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    Mute Ian Richmond
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    Apr 12th 2024, 12:50 PM

    @Ian Richmond: So to continue.Sorry i m in a storm here.Israel should of been well aware that Iran would enter this conflict.Have they ignored their intelligence on events to now finally bring Iran into a full scale war?

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    Mute Michael McSharry
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    Apr 12th 2024, 6:08 PM

    @Ian Richmond: Israel both now and many times in the past has tried everything to get the US to go to war with Iran. All attempts have failed as the US does not see such a move as being in it’s or the region’s interests. Now Israel is going for broke bombing the Iranian consulate in Lebanon. The US will still not comply with Israel’s plan. Israel has said many times that it wants control of Palestinian land from the sea to the river Jordan because it wants control of the water flow the there for strategic reasons – climate change, it’s own population growth, the cost of it’s present reliance on desalinated water, it’s need to pretend it has all the bells and whistles of a western consumerist lifestyle with high demand for water ( golf courses etc.) in what is basically a desert area.

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    Mute Paul Keane
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    Apr 12th 2024, 12:48 PM

    Biden as an elderly man, going for office again would be literal suicide.

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