British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government urged London’s High Court on Friday to block a public inquiry into its COVID-19 pandemic response and hand over some private WhatsApp messages.
This month, Britain’s Cabinet Office refused to share WhatsApp communications about the pandemic and other political topics, calling some content “unambiguously irrelevant.”
The inquiry, overseen by retired senior judge Heather Hallett, was commissioned by the government in 2021 and requested two years’ worth of WhatsApp chats between key officials, including former prime minister Boris Johnson and 40 individuals.
The Cabinet Office’s lawyer James Eadie told the court that the Cabinet Office challenged the inquiry’s demands “with some considerable reluctance.”
He stated in court filings that materials pertinent to the inquiry “simply cannot cover all government business and all the policy areas that were live over the two years.”
Eadie said the WhatsApp communications included personal and family information and “comments of a personal nature” concerning government individuals.
However, Hallett’s attorneys called the Cabinet Office’s constraints on public inquiries’ document compulsion “flawed and unworkable.”
In court filings, Hugo Keith said a witness statement submitted by Johnson earlier this month led to a reevaluation of WhatsApp chats.
“Material that had been redacted by the Cabinet Office as ‘unambiguously irrelevant’ is now assessed as relevant in light of Mr Johnson’s statement,” Keith added.
Johnson’s lawyers claim the Cabinet Office’s complaint should be rejected since Johnson is a party.
“Mr Johnson has no objection to the inquiry inspecting the materials unredacted, subject to appropriate security and confidentiality arrangements,” they wrote in court filings.
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