The Cabinet Office and Boris Johnson are at loggerheads over a trove of information requested by the Covid inquiry, as officials said they did not have the material but allies of the former prime minister insisted he had shown it to government lawyers.
The cache is at the centre of a huge battle after the official inquiry, chaired by Heather Hallett, asked the Cabinet Office to provide Johnson’s appointment diaries, notebooks and WhatsApp messages.
The Cabinet Office said it did not hold either 24 notebooks written by Johnson relating to the pandemic or the former prime minister’s WhatsApp correspondence.
However, a spokesman for Johnson said the Cabinet Office had not requested it from him directly and it is understood he gave government-appointed lawyers access to the material. The spokesman said: “Mr Johnson has no objection to disclosing material to the inquiry. He has done so and continue to do so. The decision to challenge the inquiry’s position on redactions is for the Cabinet Office.”
Amid tensions between Johnson and the government, a planned call between the former prime minister and Rishi Sunak this week has been called off. Sources suggested this was related to No 10’s proposal for Oliver Dowden to be on the call, as Johnson’s team are said to blame the Cabinet Office minister for the leak of information that some of the former PM’s diaries were handed to the police over concerns about more lockdown-breaking parties.
The Covid inquiry said on Tuesday that it would give the Cabinet Office another two days to comply with its request for Johnson’s material to be handed over, setting a new deadline of 4pm on Thursday.
It 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.
The inquiry previously issued rulings requiring notebooks, diaries and messages between Johnson and 40 other senior government figures. It also requested copies of messages on devices held by his then-adviser, Henry Cook, and the same list of figures.
However, the Cabinet Office has been considering whether to contest the request in the courts, arguing that the inquiry does not have the power to demand this unredacted material.
Lady Hallett has demanded the full cache of messages and diaries be handed over to the inquiry two weeks before the first public evidence sessions. But lawyers for the Cabinet Office are said to have advised that the inquiry does not have the powers to request access to all documents, raising the prospect of legal arbitration and a potential judicial review.
Launching a legal challenge against the ruling by the head of a public inquiry would be unprecedented, sources said.
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Government insiders have said handing over Johnson’s unredacted diaries and WhatsApp messages from the former prime minister and Cook would be an affront to their privacy and the right to private policy discussion.
A new notice from the inquiry said on Tuesday: “The inquiry was informed that the Cabinet Office does not have in its possession either Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages or Mr Johnson’s notebooks, as sought in the original section 21 notice.
“The notice has been varied so that if the Cabinet Office maintains its position that it does not hold specified materials, it must provide in substitute a witness statement from a senior civil servant, verified by a statement of truth.”
This statement must specify that the Cabinet Office does not have in its custody or under its control the specified WhatsApp materials, or any copies thereof, and a record of searches that have been made, as well as a chronology of correspondence with Johnson or his office, regarding the identification of potentially relevant WhatsApp materials held by him.
The inquiry is also asking to know whether the Cabinet Office has had in its possession or under its control any of the requested materials and whether the potentially relevant messages held by Johnson are on a personal device or a Cabinet Office/No 10 one.
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