The government is withholding Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from the official Covid inquiry to protect Rishi Sunak and other serving ministers, it is reported.
The Cabinet Office is resisting requests from inquiry chair Lady Hallett to hand over the former prime minister’s unredacted messages and diaries from the pandemic.
It fears that giving in to the former judge would mean all other evidence from ministers, including Mr Sunak himself, would have to be submitted without redactions, The Guardian reported.
Earlier, Downing Street denied the row over the disclosure of Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and notebooks to the Covid inquiry was a “cover-up”.
Responding to criticism from former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake, and asked whether there was a “cover up”, Rishi Sunkak’s official spokesman said: “No. We want to learn the lessons about the actions of the state during the pandemic, we want that to be done rigorously and candidly.”
The government has also said it does not have Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages or notebooks as a legal battle hangs over the former prime minister.
