UK Government Refuses To Hand Johnson Texts to COVID Inquiry

UK government refuses to hand over former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's texts to a COVID inquiry
The Cabinet Office is now in a legal battle over the inquiry's latest demands
The demand includes the release of Johnson's WhatsApp messages, diaries, and notebooks

The government of the United Kingdom is refusing to hand over texts of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to a COVID inquiry and is planning to fight a legal battle over the demands.

Recently, the Cabinet Office announced that it is seeking a judicial review into the demands of inquiry chair Baroness Hallett to release documents for inquiry. The ministerial department that 26 agencies and public bodies support said that the materials that are being sought were "unambiguously irrelevant,"

Demands for Boris Johnson's WhatsApp Texts

The Cabinet Office released a letter after the 4:00 p.m. deadline to hand over information where it said that it had provided "as much relevant information as possible," and it noted that it was done in the quickest time possible in line with the inquiry's order, as per Yahoo News.

The letter added that the refusal of the demands of the inquiry comes in line with the Cabinet Office seeking a judicial review. It noted that they did so with "regret" and with an assurance that they will continue to fully cooperate with the inquiry before, during, and after the courts have determined the jurisdictional issue.

The UK government noted that there were crucial issues of principle at stake that would impact the rights of individual people as well as the conduct of the government. The situation comes after the Cabinet Office argued that it did not have in its possession the documents that were being requested.

Senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson sent a statement to the inquiry that said the former prime minister's lawyers failed to provide a "substantive response" to a request that the Cabinet Office made regarding his old mobile device.

Refusal To Hand Over Materials

The judicial review is the first time a government has taken legal action against its public inquiry. Johnson also said he was willing to give the unredacted material directly to the inquiry chair seeking the materials, according to BBC.

The Cabinet Office refused to hand over all of the requested documents due to a supposed compromise of ministers' right to privacy and how it set a precedent that would prevent ministers from discussing policy matters in the future.

On the other hand, Hallett said it was in her authority to decide what material was relevant to the inquiry. Johnson's spokesman said that the prime minister had not disclosed any WhatsApp messages sent before April 2021 due to his mobile device being involved in a security breach and being off since then.

Public inquiries in Britain have historically had broad scope to demand internal government communications materials. However, this is the first time an inquiry targeting WhatsApp, a texting app that UK officials have generally used for business and personal exchanges, said the New York Times.