Cabinet Office forced to hand over Boris WhatsApp messages

It’s more bad news for the government today. The High Court has this afternoon ordered ministers to release Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks to the Covid inquiry. Judges said there were no grounds to block inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to hand over the material. It will mean inquiry officials will have access to message exchanges between Johnson and former and current ministers and officials, including Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

The Cabinet Office can apply to not provide documents if either they don’t have them, or if they think it would be ‘unreasonable’ to hand them over. But Baroness Hallett will rule on any application and there is no right of appeal. A spokesman for the government has now confirmed that: ‘We will comply fully with this judgment and will now work with the inquiry team on the practical arrangements.’ Johnson has previously attacked Sunak’s government for trying to stop the inquiry being shown his unredacted WhatsApp messages.