Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has handed his unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks to the Cabinet Office ahead of a looming deadline related to the UK’s COVID-19 Inquiry.
The inquiry seeks to provide insight into core political and administrative decision-making by the UK government during the pandemic.
Chaired by Lady Hallett, the inquiry has requested the government hand over Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, diaries, and notebooks, setting the deadline to 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The Cabinet Office had so far argued against releasing the data, saying that it may reveal personal information “unambiguously irrelevant to the inquiry.”
However, on Wednesday Johnson’s spokesman confirmed that all requested material including the former prime minister’s WhatsApps and notebooks requested by the inquiry had been handed to the Cabinet Office “in full and in unredacted form.”…