A Tory minister refuted claims that Rishi Sunak‘s ‘plan’ to unseat Boris Johnson would be revealed if his texts were released to the Covid inquiry.
Since obtaining the texts on Wednesday, the government has refrained from turning them over to Lady Hallett’s inquiry, claiming that much of the content has nothing to do with Covid.
Johnson friends, though, assert that the Cabinet Office‘s actual motivation for opposing publication of the unredacted WhatsApp chats is to protect the dignity of the present occupant of Number 10.
The Mail on Sunday quoted an unnamed ally as saying: ”What is Rishi hiding?
‘Is it plotting against Boris with Dominic Cummings?
‘Is it because he himself broke lockdown rules? Or does he fear that his Eat Out to Help Out scheme led to a significant number of deaths?’
The scheme, which allowed diners to claim 50% off the cost of their meal in an effort to boost a devastated UK hospitality industry after the 2020 Covid lockdown, will reportedly be examined by the inquiry amid questions over whether it contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, immigration minister Robert Jenrick denied the messages were being withheld to avoid embarrassment for the prime minister.
Asked directly about the Mail on Sunday story by the presenter, he said: ‘The issue here is a simple legal one – which is, should you hand over material to an inquiry which has absolutely nothing to do with Covid-19, and that’s a longstanding practice in British courts.
‘I think it’s fair and reasonable that that’s applied to the inquiry as well, and I hope that we can resolve this with Lady Justice Hallett very soon.’
He added that it would not be ‘common practice’ for the inquiry itself to decide what was relevant, rather than the government.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘I’m a former lawyer, I’ve been involved in discovery requests from courts in the past, and the normal way to do this is to set reasonable parameters, to request anything that is related to the case or, in this situation, the inquiry, but not to ask for things that are wholly unrelated.’
Mr Johnson has since bypassed Whitehall and handed some of the Whatsapp messages over himself.
However, lawyers for the Cabinet Office have warned the ex-PM that he could lose public funding for his legal advice if he ‘knowingly’ tries to ‘frustrate or undermine’ the government’s position.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘It’s entirely up to the former prime minister how he cooperates with the inquiry. If he wishes to send his documents or Whatsapp messages to them then he’s at liberty to do so.
‘I think a letter has been sent from the Cabinet Office to him, to say that as he is using taxpayers’ funds to pay for his lawyers then that funding has to be used for appropriate purposes.
‘But he can advance whatever arguments he wants to and make whatever statements he wishes in his witness statement to the inquiry.’