British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under fire for failing to provide his WhatsApp messages to the COVID inquiry during his time as chancellor.
The situation comes despite the high court requiring ministers to disclose their communications for scrutiny. In Sunak's witness statement to the public inquiry, he claimed that he did "not have access" to the messages while running the Treasury because he had changed his phone several times and failed to back them up.
Rishi Sunak's WhatsApp Messages
The COVID inquiry will begin hearing evidence on Tuesday for its second stage, examining the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It also requested key communications sent during the health crisis, from the end of January 2020 to the end of February 2022.
Prime Minister Sunak became the chancellor in February 2020, and his messages could include details of crucial pandemic decisions made by the Treasury, including "eat out to help out," bounce-back loans, and the furlough scheme, as per The Guardian.
The region's former prime minister, Boris Johnson, had also met fierce criticism when he said that he would hand over his pandemic WhatsApp messages only once government officials assessed the safety of the device that he was forced to discard in April 2021 for security reasons. His spokesperson said in July that the messages had been retrieved and given to the inquiry.
Johnson previously said he had been unable to access messages between Jan. 31, 2020, and June 7, 2020. These are significant dates during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, where thousands died. It comes despite the phone being in action until the following spring.
The former prime minister's statement suggested that other leading players in the government at the time, such as Sunak, Michael Gove, and Matt Hancock, could hand over their phones with WhatsApp or Signal messages instead. It remains unclear whether or not Johnson has handed over his diaries.
COVID Inquiry
The Cabinet Office earlier this year tried to seek an exemption from providing information and messages that it considered irrelevant to the inquiry's work. However, Baroness Hallett dismissed the request, according to Yahoo News.
In response, the government launched a legal challenge that the High Court later struck down in July. The latter then confirmed that the documents being requested need to be provided.
Now, the COVID inquiry is believed to possess unredacted WhatsApp messages between Johnson and 40 colleagues, including former No ten adviser Dominic Cummings, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, and Sunak.
The co-founder of COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Matt Fowler, said that if Johnson and Sunak continue to not follow through with the requirement to provide the messages that they were asked for, they should face the full force of the law, he said that the lengths that the officials are going to cover up the WhatsApp messages are "absolutely obscene."
He added that if they had made half as much effort into learning from the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the region would be in a better position to act if and when the next health crisis comes, said iNews.
