The Cabinet Office has lost its legal challenge against handing over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries to the Covid Inquiry. The Mail has the story.
The department had asked the High Court to rules on inquiry chair Baroness Hallett’s order to release the documents.
The Government argued that it should not have to hand over material that is “unambiguously irrelevant” – saying a point of principle was at stake even though Mr. Johnson himself had no objection.
Ruling today, Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr. Justice Garnham dismissed the claim for judicial review, but said the Cabinet Office could make a different application to Lady Hallett.
The Government said it will “comply fully” with the judgment, while insisting the case had clarified important issues.
At a hearing last month, lawyers for the department argued the inquiry does not have the legal power to force ministers to release documents and messages it says cover matters “unconnected to the Government’s handling of Covid”.
However, Hugo Keith KC, for the inquiry chairwoman, said the idea that the Cabinet Office could decide which aspects were relevant “would emasculate this and future inquiries”.
A ridiculous legal challenge that the Government inevitably lost and only made it look like it has something to hide. Which presumably it does.
Worth reading in full.
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