The Cabinet Office will have to hand over former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks, and diaries to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, the High Court has ruled.
Baroness Heather Hallett, chairwoman of the UK’s official COVID-19 inquiry, told the government in April to hand over the former prime minister’s unredacted messages and notes.
But the Cabinet Office sought a judicial review of the order, arguing it should not have to hand over material that is “unambiguously irrelevant.”
In a judgment on Thursday, Lord Justice Dingemans and Justice Garnham dismissed the department’s legal bid, finding that the fact an order for material would produce “some irrelevant documents” did not “invalidate” it or mean it “cannot be lawfully exercised.”…