Boris Johnson’s ‘full and unredacted’ messages & Covid notebooks are handed over ahead of court clash
NOTEBOOKS and WhatsApp messages belonging to Boris Johnson have been handed over to the Cabinet Office for the Covid inquiry.
Twisting the knife into his successor, the former PM dished out all his personal archive of records – who now have a huge headache over whether to redact it or hand it all over to Covid inquiry chiefs.
Yesterday No10 insisted it would only hand over documents that were relevant – and insisted that some of it would breach privacy and could reveal national security secrets.
Senior lawyers are at loggerheads with the inquiry over whether to hand over all the documents in full or redact them.
Earlier this week the Covid inquiry demanded the ex-PM’s raw copies of messages and 14 reported notebooks of memos he took at the time.
But the Cabinet Office claimed they didn’t have them.
And a statement from the former PM said this afternoon: “All Boris Johnson’s material – including WhatsApps and notebooks – requested by the Covid Inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form.
“Mr Johnson urges the Cabinet Office to urgently disclose it to the Inquiry.”
His team claimed yesterday they didn’t have the information the Covid inquiry wanted them to hand over.
And today they said they “had access to this material for several months.”
He also said that he would be happy to hand it straight to the inquiry if needed – in a warning shot to him he doesn’t care if they put it all out.
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It means that the PM’s team in the Cabinet Office will have to be the ones to decide whether to redact hundreds of messages by tomorrow’s 4pm deadline, or release it all.
The spokesperson added: “Mr Johnson cooperated with the Inquiry in full from the beginning of this process and continues to do so. Indeed, he established the Inquiry.
“He looks forward to continuing to assist the Inquiry with its important work.”