London, Thanasis Gavos

Boris Johnson handed over to the Cabinet Office the WhatsApp messages he had exchanged with those involved in the handling of the pandemic in their entirety and without deleted passages, a spokesman for the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced.

He also submitted a series of his diaries and notes from that period, “urging” the government office to “urgently” hand over all these documents to the commission tasked with the independent public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

The head of the inquiry Baroness Hallett had demanded the then Prime Minister’s messages under the Public Inquiries Act. He has also given an extension of time to the Cabinet Office until Thursday afternoon to hand over the material to her.

In his statement, Mr Johnson’s spokesman noted that the Cabinet Office “had access to this material for a number of months”, refuting the government’s excuse for the delay in complying with Lady Hallett’s request.

The government has reacted negatively to the request, claiming that it did not have access to the messages, but also warning that the disclosure of the messages would undermine free communication between government officials in the future.

Among the messages are logically exchanges of Mr. Johnson with the current Prime Minister and then Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, but also with other government and state officials who still hold office.

Failure to provide the messages to the committee would expose the government to a criminal offence, lawyers have warned.

“Mr. Johnson has cooperated with the investigation fully from the beginning of this process and continues to do so. In fact, he instituted the investigation. He looks forward to continuing to assist the investigation with its important work,” the former Prime Minister’s spokesman added.