The former head of the government's legal service has told Sky News the government may "give way" in its row with the COVID inquiry following the latest statement from Boris Johnson.Īs we have been reporting, the former prime minister has sent his full, unredacted WhatsApps and diaries about the pandemic to the Cabinet Office and urged them to pass them on to the inquiry. "I suspect this may be a wakeup call for ministers, for the government, that using this form of communication, which I'm sure they will carry on doing nonetheless, does give rise to the possibility they may have to disclose it all later on." He said that was "part of what this this dispute is about" - the extent to what might be regarded as personal forms of communication or official business. "The mere fact that something has been done by WhatsApp in an informal text doesn't of itself mean that it's private, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's immune from disclosure to an inquiry or in legal proceedings." However, he added: "What ministers have to realise is that if they are using that form of communication, then it still counts potentially as official government business. Moving onto the wider implications of the Cabinet Office's row with the COVID inquiry, Sir Jonathan Jones told Sky News it may act as a "wakeup call" for ministers who use WhatsApp.Īsked if it was "healthy and wise" for politicians to discuss government business this way, the former head of the government's legal service said: "I suspect it's going to be impossible to put that genie back the bottle."
"So I don't want to pre-empt anything that is happening." She added: "My understanding is that the PM has committed to helping in this situation and to the inquiry and the Cabinet Office has as well. However, Mr Johnson has now sent his communications to the Cabinet Office in full, and asked it to pass them on to the inquiry.Īmanda Solloway, junior minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said the inquiry is the "right thing to do" because "we need to look at lessons learned".
The documents and messages were requested by the inquiry chair, Baroness Hallett, who made an order under section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005.
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It's about getting the truth.and I think the government needs to see the bigger picture".Īsked whether Boris Johnson's intervention earlier today was designed to be "unhelpful" to Rishi Sunak, he says he suspects he takes a bit of "pleasure" in putting the Cabinet Office in a difficult position, but adds: "I think he has done the right thing."Ī junior minister has told The Take with Sophy Ridge that the prime minister is "committed to helping" amid a standoff between the government and the COVID inquiry over official communications.Īs we explained in our post at 17.10, the Cabinet Office has refused to give former prime minister Boris Johnson's full WhatsApp messages, diary entries and notebooks to the inquiry, arguing that part of the material is of a "private" and "personal" nature. "I would say to ministers, it's not about you. He admits some of the messages might be "embarrassing" for some ministers, but says the exercise is about tying to understand why the government did what it did and to learn lessons, rather than find "blame". "Thousands and thousands of people lost their lives and all of us suffered significant restriction on our freedoms, and I think that justifies sharing that information so the inquiry can really get to the bottom of what happened." Īsked about people's right to privacy, Mr Barwell says: "This is an exceptional circumstance. He says the Cabinet Office should hand over ministers' messages to the Covid Inquiry.
First up on The Take with Sophy Ridge is Theresa May's former chief of staff Lord Barwell.
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