Government loses court battle over Boris Johnson's Covid WhatsApps

The authorities has mislaid its ineligible situation to forestall the Covid enquiry from seeing Boris Johnson's WhatsApps, diaries and notebooks successful full.

The Cabinet Office had argued it should not person to manus implicit irrelevant material, but enquiry seat Baroness Hallett said it should beryllium up to her to determine what is relevant.

The authorities has accepted the ruling.

It would enactment towards handing implicit the worldly requested by adjacent week, Downing Street said.

"All elements of this volition beryllium discussed successful much item with the inquiry", No 10 added, describing the judgement arsenic the "sensible" and the "appropriate mode forward".

The Covid enquiry said it was "pleased" with the tribunal verdict and added that enquiry seat Baroness Hallett expected to received the worldly by 16:00 BST connected Monday 10 July.

The determination by the tribunal is apt to fortify the authorization of the enquiry and its quality to request evidence.

In its ruling, the tribunal said inquiries should beryllium allowed to "fish" for documents.

It said specified exercises could perchance pb to the enquiry getting "some irrelevant material".

Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham said Baroness Hallett would instrumentality documents she recovered "obviously irrelevant".

The judges besides suggested the Cabinet Office could marque its lawsuit straight to the enquiry astir which documents should beryllium considered irrelevant.

The court's ruling does not mean that the nationalist volition get to spot the documents successful afloat arsenic the enquiry could use its ain redactions. It whitethorn besides determine against making them nationalist astatine all.

Responding to the court's verdict, Deborah Doyle, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, said: "This judicial reappraisal was a hopeless discarded of clip and money.

"A palmy enquiry could prevention thousands of lives successful the lawsuit of different pandemic, and it's a disgrace that the Cabinet Office is trying to obstruct it."

Deputy Labour person Angela Rayner accused Rishi Sunak of "wasting clip and taxpayers' wealth connected doomed ineligible battles".

Earlier this twelvemonth the Covid Inquiry - acceptable up by the authorities to analyse decision-making during the pandemic - requested to spot WhatsApp messages connected Mr Johnson's devices from a radical chat acceptable up to sermon the pandemic response.

It besides asked to spot messages from different politicians including existent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The petition triggered a enactment betwixt the enquiry and the government, but besides Mr Johnson.

The erstwhile premier curate said helium was "more than happy" for the enquiry to spot his unredacted messages and threatened to nonstop what worldly helium had straight to the inquiry, by-passing the Cabinet Office.

At a proceeding of the lawsuit past month, authorities lawyer Sir James Eadie KC said the Cabinet Office had challenged the inquiry's petition with "considerable reluctance".

He argued that the authorities had a "real concern" astir people's privateness and notes that immoderate of the worldly included messages of a idiosyncratic nature.

In a confidential submission to the court, the Cabinet Office besides flagged "messages astir borderline incursions by 1 overseas authorities into the territory of different overseas state", arsenic good arsenic "the proceedings of overseas nationals successful the courts of different overseas state".

Representing the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC said letting the Cabinet Office determine which measures were applicable amounted to the authorities "marking its ain homework". He besides said it would "emasculate this and aboriginal inquiries".