Cabinet Office loses legal bid for Boris’s undredacted WhatsApps’s and notebooks

Rishi Sunak must now hand over the former Prime Minister’s full material to the ongoing inquiry and has said the Cabinet Office will ‘fully comply’ with the demands.

Judges said there were no grounds to block inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett’s order to hand over the material..

The court ruled: ‘In our judgment the fact that the section 21 notice will yield some irrelevant documents does not invalidate the notice or mean that the section 21 [notice] cannot be lawfully exercised.’

The Cabinet Office rejected the demand, arguing it should not have to hand over material it does not consider relevant.

Covid inquiry chair Baroness Hallett said it should be up to her to decide what is relevant.

The government took the unprecedented step of bringing a judicial review of Baroness Hallett’s order.

It is the first time a government has mounted a legal challenge to an inquiry it set up itself.

High Court judges handed down their decision over the Government’s judicial review of Baroness Heather Hallett’s order this afternoon.

The Cabinet Office has refused to provide the documents, arguing the request is ‘so broad’ that it is ‘bound to catch’ a large amount of irrelevant material.

However, Hugo Keith KC, for the inquiry chairwoman, has said the idea that the Cabinet Office could decide which aspects were relevant ‘would emasculate this and future inquiries’.

Lord David Pannick KC, on behalf of the former prime minister, argued there is a ‘real danger’ of undermining public confidence in the process if the department wins its bid.

‘Without full access to all relevant evidence the integrity of the inquiry would have been further undermined and left toothless by the very Government that set it up.

‘We hope the Government will accept the decision and, as they keep urging us to do after their breaches of covid rules, ‘move on’.

‘We would also urge the inquiry to be as transparent with us as they want the Cabinet Office to be with them, something they have failed to do since the inquiry started.’

The Government took the highly unusual step of launching the challenge in June, in a move which attracted criticism after days of public wrangling between the Cabinet Office and Lady Hallett’s probe.

The former prime minister handed over his unredacted WhatsApp messages, diaries and 24 notebooks to the Cabinet Office in late May.

Mr Johnson himself is backing Lady Hallett, who rejected the argument that the material was irrelevant in a May ruling, in opposing the legal challenge over the request.

Following the ruling, a Government spokesperson said the inquiry ‘is an important step to learn lessons from the pandemic and the Government is cooperating in the spirit of candour and transparency’.

The spokesperson continued: ‘The court’s judgment is a sensible resolution and will mean that the inquiry chair is able to see the information she may deem relevant, but we can work together to have an arrangement that respects the privacy of individuals and ensures completely irrelevant information is returned and not retained.

‘We will comply fully with this judgment and will now work with the inquiry team on the practical arrangements.’