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Sunak accused of trying to cover up ministers’
actions during pandemic
PM challenged as Cabinet Office battles to withhold
Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from Covid inquiry
Rowena
Mason, Ian Sample and Aubrey Allegretti
Tue 30 May
2023 21.30 BST
Rishi Sunak
has been accused of attempting to cover up the actions of ministers during the
pandemic as the Cabinet Office intensified its battle to withhold Boris
Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry.
The prime
minister insisted his government has been cooperating with the investigation
but is facing increasing calls from experts and MPs – with some coming from
within his own party – to hand over evidence without redactions.
Both Labour
and the Lib Dems accused the government of a potential cover-up, while
relatives of those who died in the Covid pandemic questioned what ministers
have to hide.
The
inquiry, led by retired judge Heather Hallett, has used its sweeping powers to
request unredacted notebooks, diaries and WhatApp correspondence between
Johnson and 40 senior government figures.
But the
government is opposing the request on grounds that it wants to protect the
privacy of ministers and officials, and is considering legal action to prevent
disclosure.
Two sources
with knowledge of the inquiry’s requests said the Cabinet Office was resisting
handing over the material from Johnson and his aide because they fear giving in
will mean all other evidence from ministers, including Sunak himself, will have
to be submitted in an unredacted form.
Hallett has
given the government another two days to hand over the unredacted information
in relation to Johnson and one of his senior aides, Henry Cook, with the
material now due by 4pm on Thursday. Refusing to comply with the inquiry’s
order is a potential criminal offence.
A
spokesperson for Johnson said he had “no objection” to his 24 notebooks and
WhatsApps being given to the inquiry, and claimed government lawyers had
already been given access to them.
But the
Cabinet Office released a new statement on Tuesday holding firm against giving
the Covid inquiry uncensored material, with the government still considering
the possibility of a legal challenge.
A
spokesperson said: “We are firmly of the view that the inquiry does not have
the power to request unambiguously irrelevant information that is beyond the
scope of this investigation. This includes the WhatsApp messages of government
employees which are not about work but instead are entirely personal and relate
to their private lives.”
However,
Bloomberg reported it had seen leaked legal advice from the government’s most
senior lawyer, Sir James Eadie, which suggested officials have been withholding
evidence for the inquiry based on political sensitivity, rather than just
personal details.
It reported
that the advice said: “We would be concerned by any approach which appeared to
concede the principle that Cabinet Collective Responsibility material should be
disclosed as a matter of course.” The advice added: “That material will concern
a number of ministers still in office, and potentially in the same office. On
any view, it will be extremely recent and of the greatest political
sensitivity.”
The government
does not routinely retain WhatsApp messages between ministers and officials
unless they contain government decisions.
No 10
refused to comment on whether Sunak and current members of the government have
yet been asked to hand over their correspondence and documentation in full to
the inquiry.
John Bell,
a leading government adviser during the pandemic, said Hallett should be able
to see communications between senior government figures.
He added:
“First of all, give her access. These are people who are working for the
public. If there’s something deeply private and personal they shouldn’t have
been using their official context for that. This should all be accessible to
the inquiry. But then the inquiry should be a bit careful that they don’t get
sucked into a load of sideshows which are not really central to what they are
trying to do, but they’ll be able to work that out.”
Others to
question the government’s actions include Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, who
said the apparent “reluctance” by the government to hand over what was
requested “seems a nonsense”.
Speaking to
TalkTV, she added that as much contemporary evidence as possible was vital to
ensuring the inquiry could look into serious issues about the handling of the
pandemic.
She said
Hallett “doesn’t look like a woman who’s about to roll over … probably rightly
so” and added there would be “less pain for the government if they hand [the
files] over quickly”.
Labour said
the situation had the “whiff of a cover-up” while the Lib Dems said this “dog
ate my homework-type excuse from the government simply doesn’t stand up to
scrutiny”.
Susie
Flintham, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice
campaign group, said the lengths the Cabinet Office is going to in order to
prevent Johnson’s material being shared “should alarm everyone”.
“This
inquiry needs to get to the facts if it is to learn lessons to help save lives
in the next pandemic. So why are the Cabinet Office standing in their way? Our
members are wondering what they are hiding?” she added.
Bob
Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, told the BBC there was “some
cover-up going on here to save embarrassment of ministers”, as well as the
Cabinet Office in his view wrongly “fighting for a principle of
confidentiality”.
Jonathan
Jones, a former government lawyer, suggested the government’s actions were
ultimately not likely to work because Hallett’s inquiry has wide powers. “It
might be viewed as an attempt to avoid handing over material which the government
would prefer not to, but it’s not likely to work because ultimately it will be
for the courts to decide. So if it’s a cover-up, it’s not likely to be
successful,” he said.
The
controversy appears to have done nothing to smooth tensions between Sunak’s
government and Johnson, after the former prime minister was reported to police
last week by Cabinet Office officials after the government-appointed lawyers
found potential evidence of more lockdown-breaking parties in his diaries.
Johnson has denied this.
The prime
minister and his predecessor were meant to have peace talks this week over issues
such as the Covid inquiry and Johnson’s long-awaited peerages list but this
phone call has been cancelled.
Sunak said
on Tuesday the government was cooperating fully with the Covid inquiry and No
10 denied the suggestion of a cover-up, with the Cabinet Office highlighting
55,000 documents, 24 personal witness statements and eight corporate statements
given to the Covid inquiry. The government argues that handing over unredacted
notebooks and WhatsApp messages would be an affront to the privacy of officials
and ministers, as well as hindering policy discussion.
However,
the inquiry has also requested proof in the form of testimony from a senior
official that the government does not hold any WhatsApp messages or notebooks
from the former prime minister. It asked for records of searches conducted and
correspondence with Johnson to be provided.
It is now
two weeks before the first public evidence sessions and a new schedule released
by the inquiry shows some matters such as vaccines, procurement and care homes
will not be concluded until 2026 – after the next election.
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