Aubrey Allegretti Political correspondent
Ministers have been ordered to hand over an unredacted cache of documents, including Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries, to the Covid inquiry after losing a legal challenge.
Government insiders said they would comply with the ruling made by high court judges yesterday, but were concerned that it would set a precedent for further demands for important documents and messages held by serving ministers.
Bereaved families and opposition parties criticised the Cabinet Office’s failed judicial review, which sought to curb the powers of the inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, as a waste of time and money.
In the ruling, Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham said the diaries and notebooks requested by Lady Hallett “were very likely to contain information about decision-making”. They described the terms of reference for the inquiry as “very wide” and suggested that Hallett’s team should be allow to “fish” for documents with an “informed but speculative request”.
As a compromise, the judges decided that Hallett could see all the WhatsApps requested but hand back those she deemed irrelevant without them being disclosed to third parties.
A deadline of 4pm on Monday was set by Hallett for the Cabinet Office to hand over the unredacted batch of documents, which were initially requested on 28 April.
The government said it would “fully comply”, but defended its decision to launch a judicial review to clarify Hallett’s powers under the 2005 Inquiries Act.
Ministers had initially resisted handing over the full tranche of unredacted documents because of concerns they contained private details, for example of a child’s schooling arrangements.
Lawyers for the Cabinet