Penny Mordaunt says messages from Boris Johnson disappeared from her phone

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Penny Mordaunt has revealed that a series of Covid-related WhatsApp messages with Boris Johnson have mysteriously disappeared from her phone.

The minister said that conversations were deleted from her phone without her knowing why, in explosive written evidence provided to the Covid inquiry.

Ms Mordaunt also said Mr Johnson's former chief of staff at Number 10 had ignored 14 attempts to hold a meeting to talk about the communications disappearance.

This puts new pressure on the former prime minister to explain exactly what happened after told the inquest it was not possible to access around 5,000 WhatsApp messages from his old phone.

Mr Johnson said it was impossible to recover the messages covering the crucial months of January to June 2020 - with her lawyers suggesting it could be the phone undergoing an automatic factory reset.

Ms Mordaunt, who was general treasurer. under Mr Johnson, told the inquiry she sent the Prime Minister a message on February 29, 2020 “to raise the issue of safeguarding in care homes” and got a response.

However, the senior Tory discovered the exchange was missing and realized she could not find any other messages shared with Mr Johnson between March 2018 and March 2020.

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Penny Mordaunt said Boris Johnson's messages disappeared without explanation

(PA Archive)

Ms Mordaunt said she kept pushing No 10's security team for an explanation. "After a while, it was suggested to us because o...