The government, well the Cabinet Office, is locked in a battle with the Covid inquiry to get unfettered access to the diary and whatsApp messages of former PM Boris Johnson.
What are they hiding? As each refusal makes more people wonder what they are keeping out of the public eye.
Retired senior judge Baroness Hallett is doing what she can to get all the information, to assist with their inquiry.
The deadline for the government to hand over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages to the COVID Inquiry has been extended. Inquiry chair Lady Hallett had ordered
The government was supposed to hand over the messages – alongside diary entries and notes – by 4pm on Tuesday 30 May.
The deadline has now set been 4pm on Thursday 1 June.
Legal advice
Alex Wickham tweeted: “Bloomberg has obtained written legal advice from the government‘s top lawyer Sir James Eadie KC to the Cabinet Office It advises them NOT to hand over “politically sensitive” material about ministers’ private discussions to the Covid inquiry.”
PM Rishi Sunak said they have given over 55,000 documents, but its not the ones they want as Lord Falconer points out.
Slippery
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting , has told Sky News the prime minister should “comply with the inquiry and do it today”.
He said: “I think the prime minister looks really slippery today. He says he wants the government to cooperate with the inquiry but the government has been withholding information the inquiry has asked for.
“One minute the government says the messages they have are immaterial; the next minute they’re saying they don’t exist. Which is it?”
Work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, defended the government saying: “So what the government is doing here is we have started this inquiry because we think it’s very important that we get to the bottom of some really important questions that many, many millions of people want to know the answers to around the Covid pandemic and our response to it.
“We’ve provided around 55,000 documents, eight witness statements and corporate witness statements, as well, to the inquiry. And we absolutely intend to continue to be absolutely transparent and candid.”
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