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THE Cabinet Office does NOT have access to Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and diaries, the Covid-19 inquiry has been told.
It comes as the deadline to hand over documents to senior lawyers investigating the pandemic is just hours away.
The Cabinet Office has been given a deadline of 4pm today to handover thousands of Whatsapp messages sent by Boris Johnson during the pandemic[/caption]
Boris Johnson had warned it would be a huge breach of security to let the inquiry have access to all his notebooks and messages.
But this morning the ex-PM’s team insisted he isn’t against giving the evidence over.
A spokesman for Boris said: “Mr Johnson has no objection to disclosing material to the inquiry. He has done so and will continue to do so.
“The decision to challenge the inquiry’s position on redactions is for the Cabinet Office.”
Last week the Cabinet Office stood firm in refusing to hand over texts and diaries – despite the threat of legal action from the inquiry.
They have already dished out 55,000 documents and 24 witness statements to the investigation.
But in the latest plot twist, officials now say they don’t even have copies of the Boris messages the inquiry is demanding.
Officials argue many of the documents the inquiry wants are “unambiguously irrelevant” to learning lessons from the pandemic.
They also think it would be a major breach of privacy.
On a visit to Kent this morning, Rishi Sunak insisted it’s “really important that we learn the lessons of Covid”.
“We want to make sure that whatever lessons there are to be learned are learned and we do that in a spirit of transparency and candour,” the PM said.
“With regard to the specific question at the moment, the Government is carefully considering its position but it is confident in the approach that it’s taking.”
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