As Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson established an independent inquiry into his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now the inquiry wants to see, in full, what Johnson wrote to
other U.K. officials as the outbreak raged — but the government is fighting a
demand to hand over the material.
Inquiry chairwoman Heather Hallett, a retired judge, has
asked the Conservative government, now led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to
produce full copies of Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and notebooks, after
initially being given redacted versions.
Government officials said they only cut out material that
was “unambiguously irrelevant” to the investigation, but Hallett wants to be
the judge of that. She said “the entire contents of the specified documents are
of potential relevance to the lines of investigation being pursued by the
inquiry.”
Hallett — who has the power to summon evidence and question
witnesses under oath — set a deadline of 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) Tuesday for the
government to hand over the documents, covering a two-year period from early
2020.
But hours before the deadline, the government asked for more
time, claiming it didn’t have Johnson’s WhatsApp messages or notebooks. Hallett
denied a request to move the deadline to Monday, but agreed to extend it by 48
hours, until Thursday.
The inquiry said if the WhatsApp messages and notebooks
can’t be produced, the government must provide witness statements from senior
officials setting out what efforts have been made to find them.
Sunak, who took office after Johnson left office in
September – to be succeeded, for a few weeks, by Liz Truss — said the
government had already handed over tens of thousands of documents to the
inquiry and was “considering next steps carefully.” The government is worried
about the precedent that disclosing Johnson’s full, unredacted conversations
might set.
Johnson’s office said the former leader had “no objection to
disclosing material to the inquiry,” but that decisions on redactions were for
the Cabinet office, a government department, to make.
Bob Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, said that
the government was likely resisting disclosure “to save embarrassment of
ministers” — an approach he called “misguided.”
The U.K. has recorded more than 200,000 deaths among people
with COVID-19, one of the highest tolls in Europe, and the decisions of
Johnson’s government have been endlessly debated. Johnson agreed in late 2021
to hold an inquiry after pressure from bereaved families.
Hallett’s inquiry is due to investigate the U.K.’s
preparedness for a pandemic, how the government responded, and whether the
“level of loss was inevitable or whether things could have been done better.”
Public hearings are scheduled to start in June, and Johnson is among the senior
officials due to give evidence.
The inquiry has already landed Johnson in hot water. He was
one of dozens of people fined last year for breaking his own government’s
pandemic lockdown rules in the so-called partygate scandal. Earlier this month,
government-appointed lawyers helping Johnson prepare his submissions and
testimony came across evidence of more potential breaches of COVID-19
restrictions.
The new evidence relates to alleged visits to Chequers, the
prime minister’s official country retreat, as well as potential breaches in the
leader’s Downing Street residence.
Civil servants reported the information to police, who say
they are assessing the new evidence. Johnson denies wrongdoing. -AP
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