Covid inquiry orders full disclosure of Boris Johnson diaries

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The public Covid-19 inquiry has issued a legal notice ordering Cabinet to hand over unedited versions of Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and diaries dating back to the pandemic.

Lady Heather Hallett, chair of the inquiry, released the notice on Wednesday a day after it emerged Johnson had been referred to the police for new potential violations of the coronavirus regulations while he was prime minister.

Johnson made clear in a letter to Hallett that he had not been given any insight into the inquiry’s request for redacted information or the Cabinet’s refusal to hand it over.

He said any suggestions that he himself did not provide documentation would be “unfair and false”.

He also said he had let go of the government-appointed lawyers representing him at the public inquiry, which he had highlighted entries in his diary while prime minister which Cabinet Office officials later reported to police last week.

The Times reported on Tuesday that diary entries showed visits to Downing Street and Checkers, the country residence used by UK prime ministers and Johnson’s friends and family during the pandemic.

Hallett revealed that the public Covid inquiry request for unredacted messages, contemporary notebooks and Johnson’s diaries was made under section 21 of the Investigations Act 2005.

Hallett rejected Cabinet’s argument that the inquiry request was illegitimate, arguing that he had “misunderstood the scope of the inquiry” and that the material requested was of “potential relevance”.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the “unambiguously irrelevant” documentation should not be disclosed at the inquiry, but added that the government “will carefully consider our next steps”.

Labor MP Angela Rayner called on the government to comply with the inquiry’s request “so that the public can get to the truth and those responsible can be held to account”.

Johnson, meanwhile, said he was hiring new lawyers to represent him at the inquiry. His office said allegations of the new violations of the Covid rules by him were “totally false”.

Johnson’s team said the events discovered in his diary, which took place between June 2020 and May 2021 at No. 10 and Checkers, were within the rules.

His sister Rachel, a broadcaster and author, told LBC: “As far as I know, all the rules were followed every time I went to Checkers.”

Johnson became the first prime minister found to have committed a crime while in office after attending a birthday party in Downing Street in June 2020 that breached coronavirus rules.

Amid anger among Johnson’s allies over the Cabinet Office’s move to hand over Johnson’s diary entries to police, Downing Street has rejected claims of a politically motivated mend by the former prime minister.

However, a Tory MP close to Johnson said there appeared to be vengeance against him in parts of government, saying: ‘It’s almost as if they’ve seen him buried and kept going back to check that the body was still cold.

“I hope the police look into it quickly and move on. . . But this seems like an opportunity to lengthen the privilege commission’s investigation.”

Johnson is being investigated by the House of Commons Privileges Committee that he deliberately misled parliament about block parties in Downing Street.

A person close to the privileges committee said the latest developments could “slow the release of the report by a week or two”.

Referring to new information about the Downing Street and Checkers events involving Johnson which has been referred to police, they added: “For now, it’s just allegations. We must be careful before making any inferences. . . The question will be which of these meetings were business meetings.”