Sunak government takes Covid inquiry to court to protect Boris' WhatsApp

Sign up for View email from Westminster for expert analytics straight to your inboxReceive our free email View from WestminsterPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email addressI would like to receive emails about offers, events and updates day of The Independent. Read our privacy notice{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}An error has occurred. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

has refused to back down in the incredible dispute over , as its government has taken legal action against the in a last-ditch attempt to protect the content.

Mr. Sunak has been accused by Labor and the Liberal Democrats of a 'cover-up' and a 'cowardly' attempt to obstruct the investigation, while former Civil Service chief Robert Kerslake told The Independent: 'They're in a hole and they should stop digging.'

The Cabinet Office will seek a judicial review of the inquiry chair's request, the Baroness Hallett, to release the former Prime Minister's WhatsApp messages and notebooks.He revealed the unprecedented decision in a letter to his team.

The department said it was taking the legal challenge 'with regret' but insisted 'important questions of principle' were at stake. He claimed the inquiry's request amounted to an 'unwarranted intrusion' into other aspects of the government's work , as well as "expectations of privacy".

In another explosive development, it emerged that Mr Johnson was only providing officials with WhatsApp messages dating back to May 2021 - despite the former prime minister's claim this week that he had submitted the "complete, unredacted" material when he urged the government to hand it over to the inquiry.

In a statement to Inquiry, senior civil servant Ellie Nicholson said Mr Johnson's lawyers had failed to provide a 'substantial response' to a request for his old mobile phone, which allegedly contained material from the start of the Covid crisis in the early 2020 until the following spring.

Ms Nicholson said the Cabinet Office had received 300 pages of Mr Johnson's WhatsApp messages on Wednesday after May 2021 and was reviewing the material "for sensitivities to national security and unambiguously irrelevant material” in order to redact it.

Mr. Johnson was forced to change his mobile number in 2021 after it emerged the one he used had been publicly available online for 15 years. The Cabinet Office said it believed the former Prime Minister 'still had possession' of his old phone.

But Mr Johnson - in his own letter to the inquiry on Thursday evening - said said he was 'more than happy' to hand over his unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks directly to the Covid inquiry.

The former Tory leader told the inquiry he was d agree with the position of the Cabinet Office "that in principle advice to m ...